Black Blood Woodpecker
by Sharkteeth
Summary: Ganta was always a normal kid, but when he was sent to Deadman Wonderland he'll find out that all he knows is a lie. Will he be able to discover the mysteries of his past or will he give into the madness that is slowly consuming him? Will he be a hero or will his Black Blood make him a Kishin? Warning: this does contain spoilers for Deadman Wonderland.
1. Black Blood Beginings

**Hey everyone this is Sharkteeth, I decided to revise all of my stories, fixing grammar mistakes, making the plot make more sense, etc,etc. Hopefully all of my faithful readers can forgive my tardiness, but I hope these revisions make up for it.**

"Welcome to Deadman Wonderland./**Where everyone is a little mad."** People/Ragnarok talking

'_The cake is a lie__**/ Eat the muffins instead' **_People/ Ragnarok thinking

"The insanity is all consuming." Techniques being used

Disclaimer: I do not own Deadman Wonderland or Soul Eater in anyway shape or form.

**Warning: The following fic has scenes of violence and graphic language so if you read this then you must understand that and are reading this for the violence and language.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Black Blood Beginnings

Attached to the main 'body' of Japan's National Medical and Health Center was a moderately-sized child-care center that was set up for all of the children of the employees that worked there. This made it perfect for the needs of one Sorae Igarashi.

Sorae was a woman in her mid-twenties with long black hair that was done up in a braided ponytail and usually had a gentle but firm expression on her face. She had always considered herself lucky that she had lived such a happy life when so many others did not. Mrs. Igarashi had married her college sweetheart, Kenshin Igarashi, straight out of college and never regretted her decision. It was only a few months after the wedding that the newfound couple had been blessed with a son that they named Ganta.

To Sorae, it seemed that life could only get better in terms of her career and her loving family. Unfortunately for her, these good times were short-lived as, not six months after Ganta had been born; Kenshin had been killed in a car crash leaving her widowed and Ganta fatherless.

The recently-widowed mother was now sitting in the waiting room of the nursery with her little Ganta in her arms. She looked around the room with a hesitant expression on her face, not knowing if she wanted to go through with this or not. Normally, she wouldn't have bothered with leaving Ganta at the nursery at all, but with recent and unexpected death of her husband, she had been left with little choice in the matter.

_'Oh, Kenshin... why did you have to leave me and Ganta like this?' _Sorae thought, holding back her tears. _'Why did you have to die?'_

Sorae would've continued with these depressing thoughts if not for the unexpected tug on her lab coat. Looking down, Sorae could see that it was Ganta that had grabbed a tiny fistful of clothes and was now playfully tugging at them.

Sorae couldn't help but smile at her baby's actions, the happiness that he made her feel washed away all of her worries about the situation. _'Perhaps the situation won't be so bad after all. It will only be for a few hours and then I can pick Ganta right up.'_

"Mrs. Igarashi, Doctor Gorgon can see you now." A feminine voice over the intercom announced.

Sorae picked up her bag that was leaning against the chair and made her way into Miss Medusa Gorgon's office with bright hopes for the future.

XXXXXXXX

(?)

Within a secret lab inside of the child-care facility of Japan's National Medical and Health Center, a horrible experiment was about to be performed.

Laying on a raised platform in the middle of the lab was little baby Ganta. Ganta was sedated so that he would be totally aware of the outside world without being able to move at all. He was attached to a series of machines around him that were monitoring all of his vital signs. Ganta also had an IV drip and blood pump ready to be attached to his right and left arm respectively. The IV bag near the infant's right arm was filled with a thick, black blood-like substance instead of plasma or nutrients. On the IV Bag's label the words "Project Ragnarok" were clearly printed with black ink.

Standing of to the side of the platform was a light-skinned woman who was making some last minutes adjustments to the medical machines that were hooked up to Ganta. She was a fairly tall woman with an average physical build underneath a white lab-coat. She had blonde hair that was arranged in a spiked style with two long strands extending downwards framing either side of her face. Both stands of hair were entwined around each other like a caduceus' snake that rested on her chest. She also had a large, black, dotted snake tattoo that winded down both of her arms. However it was her eyes that drew the most attention since both were golden yellow with black pupils and were steep with the depths of madness.

This woman was Dr. Medusa Gorgon and she was about to perform a horrible though necessary, to her at least, experiment on baby Ganta. After all, how would humans make progress in the field of science if they didn't experiment?

As she adjusted the last dial of her machines, Medusa reached into one of her coat pockets and pulled out a rectangular recording device.

"Today is August fourth and we shall be using subject twenty-four, Ganta Igarashi, for today's experiment. The subject is approximately six months old and is in good condition. In today's experiment I shall replace the subject's blood supply with a supply that has been infected with the Asura Worm; a cousin to the Nameless Worm. Like always, the supply that has been infected with the Asura Worm has changed its usual coloring from red to black." Medusa then walked over to the sleeping Ganta to examine the IV bag, which was full of the substance in question.

"The full capabilities of the Asura Worm have yet to be fully documented since all test subjects could not handle the changes that the worm caused in their bodies. Most went insane due to the worms insanity inducing affects while other's had their insides turned to mush. Hopefully due to the subject's young age, less than one full year, it can adapt to the Asura Worm."

Medusa's face then morphed into an expression that didn't seem to belong on a human's face. Her face showed the utter enjoyment of pain and suffering that only the most evil of people could claim to do.

"Then again it's not like I'll be out of test subjects anytime soon. It's time to begin the experiment."

With that Medusa attached the baby's left arm to the blood pump and turned it on. She silently watched as the machines slowly began to draw out the infant's blood from its body. She then hooked the IV tube to the bag so that's its contents could flow into Ganta's veins. The anticipation was nearly killing her; watching the black blood flow inch by inch through the tube was almost too much for her. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Project Ragnarok began to flow into Ganta's body.

Though the baby wasn't making a sound, thanks to the sedatives that she had given it, Medusa could tell that it was in a lot of pain due to the elevations in its vital signs. As the bag emptied more and more blood into Ganta, Medusa couldn't help but make some comments on her observations.

"Initial results show that replacing the subject's original blood supply with a supply that's infected with the Asura Worm causes extreme pain in the subject. Not a significant side effect."

After a little bit of time the blood pump extracted the last of Ganta's blood as the IV bag completely emptied into Ganta's veins. The excitement that Medusa felt was held back by her scientific professionalism. She unhooked the blood pumper and properly bandaged the infant's arms before she took her measurements from Ganta. After running Ganta through a series of tests and recording a set of measurements, her face morphed into its familiar state of madness.

"It worked… granted that the worms are in a state of hibernation... They are living within the body without the host's immune system attacking them." She whispered to herself. Her expression then morphed into her standard "public" face before she went to pick Ganta up. She then looked down at Ganta with an expression that was almost motherly in nature.

"Congratulations Ganta-kun, it looks like you're going to become a god."

XXXXXXXXXX

(Four Months Later)

Medusa sighed once again as she brought Ganta back to his crib for the night. Her initial excitement of finally finding a suitable specimen for her project had been drained away after the first two months of failed tests and inconclusive data. Despite Ganta adapting to the Asura Worm, he hadn't displayed any of the abilities that she had hoped for. He displayed no superhuman abilities whatsoever other than an accelerated healing rate and the cause her frustrations was the Asura Worm itself.

Apparently having only a suitable host wasn't enough to awaken the true powers of the Asura Worm. Something else was needed to fully activate it; some form of Catalyst to bring out its dormant powers.

She had tried of dozens of tests on Ganta, all of them in the hopes of awakening the power within the baby's blood but nothing seemed to work. She supposed that Ganta's new healing factor was something of a blessing for her. After all, it was much easier to hide the marks of her experiments if they healed themselves right up. Medusa sighed again as she thought about of her most recent failure.

She actually had a lot of hope for today's test; recently the Center had found a child that had been infected with the Nameless Worm yet showed no sign of rejection. She had managed to sneak a sample of the girl's blood and was practically vibrating with excitement when she saw the interactions between the worm and the human. The Nameless Worm was active within the girl's body and the girl's immune system showed no sign of rejecting it. On the contrary, the girl's immune system was beginning to incorporate them into the body.

Eventually she decided that she would introduce a sample of the girl's incorporated Nameless worm into Ganta and see if that would provoke a reaction from the Asura Worm. Of course she wouldn't risk her only test subject, so she created a genetic kill switch for the Nameless Worm; all traces of the Nameless Worm would be killed off at the stroke of midnight. Unfortunately, hours later, it looked as if all of her efforts were in vain as once again the Asura Worm within Ganta had failed to awaken.

Medusa sighed in frustration as she wracked her brain for a solution, _'What else can I do? Nothing seems to stimulate a response from the Asura Worm. If it __doesn't__ awaken, then all of my research is for not.'_ She then put Ganta in his crib with the rest of the other babies in the nursery and silently stared at him, _'Oh well, tomorrow's another day I suppose.'_ That's when Medusa noticed that something was amiss with Ganta.

On the infant's right shoulder was a cut that was silently leaking a small trickle of black blood.

_'How can this be?'_ Medusa thought as she leaned over Ganta to get a better look at the cut, _'In all of my other experiments, Ganta's wounds have healed __without a single scar in an instant__… So how can he have that cut on his shoulder?'_

Medusa took out a small handkerchief from her pocket and leaned over to clean the wound. After all, it wouldn't do for someone to find out about her experiments just quite yet. Just as Medusa was going to clean the wound with her handkerchief she saw a flash of movement from the corner of her eyes. Medusa whipped her head up in alarm, hoping that no one had entered the room when she wasn't looking. When she saw that she merely left the window open and that all she saw was the flapping of the nursery's curtain Medusa left out a sigh of relief.

_'That almost gave me a heart attack.'_

_**!SHINK!**_

Medusa could feel a pain in in between her breasts as a warm feeling spread throughout her torso. She looked down at her chest and saw that a long, thin, black blade had impaled her chest and speared her right through her heart. Her blood was already staining her lab coat as a crimson red started to replace the sterile white of her coat. The doctor part of her mind ideally noted that she could no longer feel the lower half of her body, which probably means that the blade had severed her spine.

Medusa's eyes followed the blade to its base and would have found herself gasping with joy if not for her imminent death. The base of the blade seemed to melt into a black tendril made of a familiar black fluid. She followed the tendril and found herself looking at Ganta's crib where the baby was staring at her through the bars of his crib. But unlike his normal pair of brown eyes that Ganta always had, his left eye had been completely bleached white and the pupil had been replaced with a cartoonish looking X.

The blade was then yanked from Medusa's chest and melted back into its liquid form. Without the blade to keep her up Medusa fell onto the floor, her legs no longer responding to her mind, as her blood began to pool around her. The tendril then flowed back into Ganta's shoulders where the wound seamlessly sealed up as though it was never there. Ganta's eyes then shut as the baby laid down and went to sleep.

As Medusa's vision began to darken she felt so…

So….

Exhilarated!

The madness returned to her eyes even as they began to dim. Even as death came to her, Medusa still had the strength to release one last malice filled chuckle. None of it mattered anymore, her life, her death; all of those things were insignificant now that she had seen the proof. Her experiment had worked! She had created a true God; a god that would destroy everything and remake the world anew in its own image.

She had created a Kishin!

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

_**Children's Doctor Killed!**_

_Tragedy struck yesterday as a local children's doctor, Medusa Gorgon was found dead in the nursery section of her clinic. Due to the wounds that she sustained and the open window near the scene of the crime, the police have concluded that at some time last night Miss Gorgon must have been checking up on the infants when she came upon someone breaking into the nursery. The assailant then fatally wounded Miss Gorgon and escaped out of the window from which he or she had entered in. At this moment there are no confirmed suspects but the police hope to find someone soon. We take this moment to mourn the loss of the kind and caring individual that was Medusa Gorgon. She will be missed by all the lives that she helped._

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Five Years Later: The Lot behind the JNMHC)

Six year old Ganta Igarashi was happily playing with his best friend Shiro in one of the many gardens that were outside of his mother's work place. Ganta was of average height and had dark brown, almost black, spiky hair that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. With his brown eyes and casual clothing Ganta almost seemed to be the picture of normalcy. His friend on the other hand couldn't have been more different then he was.

Shiro was a small girl, a little younger then Ganta himself, who almost seemed to be bleached white. Her hair was a white as snow and her skin looked as if it had never seen the light of day. Along with her blood red eyes and grey sundress Shiro was a child that could not be so easily forgotten.

Currently the both of them were sitting in a small patch of grass surrounded by flowers with crayons in their hands as they drew on some paper. Shiro was happily humming a small tune to herself as she squiggled on her paper while Ganta seemed to be absorbed in his own creation.

"Yata, it's done!" Ganta's yell of happiness startled Shiro which made the brown crayon in her hand slash across the picture that she was working on. Once she saw what she had done Shiro angrily pouted and glared at the grinning Ganta.

"Ganta-kun, why did you do that? You made me ruin my picture."

Seeing the angry pout on his friend's face Ganta knew that he was going to have to apologize to Shiro. After all, mama always said to apologize for your mistakes and always seemed to be right. Just as he was about to apologize to his friend something held him back, or more specifically a voice held him back.

_**'Just what do you think doing you sissy?'**_

Ganta became rather annoyed when a high pitched voice echoed throughout his head. This was not the first time Ganta had heard the voice in his head and it would not be the last. Ganta didn't like the voice very much, it was very mean and it always wanted him to do bad things, so he tried to ignore it. For some reason though, it would always act up whenever he was around Shiro.

_**'Hey! Are you ignoring me?'**_

_'I'm not supposed to talk to you. Kaa-chan said that you're a bad person.'_

The voice in his head didn't seem to take kindly to Ganta's response and immediately made its displeasure known. _**'Hey you wuss, why are you listening to that old hag anyways? You should be listening to me instead.'**_

'_Hey! Don't talk about Kaa-chan like that!'_

"Gannnnnnntaaaaaa! What are you doing?" Shiro's angry voice broke Ganta out of his inner argument with the voice. Shiro was hopping up and down, her arms waving in the air as she tried to get Ganta to stop daydreaming.

"Sorry Shiro I was just excited cause I finished my drawing!" Ganta then pushed the picture in front of Shiro's face. "Here take a look!"

Shiro's eyed the picture for a second before her eyes began to sparkle with childish glee. On the paper was a crudely drawn man, if you could it that. The man's skin was as black and ink and was heavily muscled. He wore a pair of bone white gloves that had a black stripe running down each of the fingers. He wore a pair of spiked wrist guards along with a spiked collar and a silver strap over his right shoulder. The man's face was replaced with a large white X and his eyes were pure white with a black X in them.

"Wow Ganta this is so cool!" Shiro's face then became confused, "What is it?"

"This…" Ganta began as pointed at the picture, "Is Aceman's newest archenemy, Ragnarok! He is really mean and likes to pick on people and steal their candy but he's really strong."

Shiro's head tilted to the side a bit as confusion became even more evident at Ganta's explanation. "Ragnarok? What does that mean?"

Ganta's happiness was cut off at the legs as he began to sweat slightly and tremble. His pupils reduced to pinpricks as the memories of his 'Inspiration' flooded his young mind. Ever since he could remember, Ganta had been victim of terrible nightmares that plagued his sleep. The odd thing was that it was always the same dream. Ganta would be on a giant metal slab in a dark area and he couldn't move any part of his body. Then from the shadows, the form of an evil witch would come with a black potion in her hands. Then the witch would then steal Ganta's blood and pour the potion into Ganta's wounds where it would seep into his body. Once the entire potion was out of the container Ganta could make out a series of letters that spelled out a single word, Ragnarok.

"Ganta, Shiro! Where are you? I have pudding cups!" The voice of his mother brought Ganta out of his nightmares.

"We're over here Kaa-chan!" Ganta yelled as he waved to his mother.

_**'Yeah pudding, I want some.'**_ The voice in his head said as his mother drew closer.

The sight of Sorae with pudding washed away Shiro's curiosity as the thought of delicious pudding filled her head. The wheels of fate are cruel indeed for these halcyon days were merely the prelude to a most horrendous future.

XXXXXXXXXX

(Ten years later: Nagano Highschool)

_"Welcome to Deadman Wonderland where the dreams of adults and children become a reality..."_

Fifteen year old Ganta Igarashi sat in his desk as he watched a video on his phone. The video itself really wasn't interesting, he'd seen it a million times already, but he recently learned that they were going to the weird park for their field trip. He was so into the video was that he never noticed the person standing behind him with an evil grin on her face.

"GANTA-KUN!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH HHHHHHHHH!" Ganta yelled out in fright, flying a good couple of feet into the air above his chair. Once he landed back on his chair, which groaned in protest of his surprisingly heavy weight, his hands flew to his heart in order to try to calm himself down. Then, once he got his heart rate under control, Ganta turned around to see the person who decided to scare him into an early death.

There, holding her sides with laughter, was his best female friend Mimi Katsurui. Mimi was an average-sized girl with shoulder-length ebony hair and forest-green eyes. Like all the other students in their school, she wore a standard uniform which was now ruffled slightly.

"Cut it out Mimi, it wasn't that funny." Ganta complained, his cheeks reddening.

"Actually… it was pretty funny, Ganta." A male voiced said from behind Ganta followed by the owner of the voice placing a soccer ball. The voice belonged to Ganta's other friend, Yamakatsu Katsuya. Yamakatsu was taller than Ganta and had a deep tan from all of the time that he spent outside. He had dark brown eyes and brown hair that was a few shades lighter than Ganta's almost black hair. Yamakatsu was a major soccer fan and eventually wanted to be a part of the Samurai Blue's. With his skills, everyone believed that goal wasn't too farfetched.

"Yeah, yeah." Ganta mumbled as he leaned forward onto his desk. "Why don't you all make fun of me? I swear, with friends like these…"

"Now, now Ganta don't be looking all depressed; we were only joking." Yamakatsu said as he began to kick the soccer ball into the air.

Ganta then dropped the fake depression act and joined in with his friend's conversation. As talked about their perspective futures Ganta couldn't help but stare at Mimi's face and reflect on his feelings for her.

_'Mimi so beautiful, I know that we practically grew up together but… I can't help but feel that there's something more between us.'_ He paused for a moment before he nodded; it was time_. 'At Wonderland I'm going to confess my feelings to her.'_

Ganta then rejoined the conversation as the thoughts of his bright future danced through his head as their entire lives seemed to be ahead of them. If only that was to be true.

_**'It's near…'**_

A deep voice seemed to bellow throughout Ganta's very being making his skin crawl; no… not his skin, his blood. Ganta's head immediately whipped up before he turned around, only to find nothing.

_'What the hell was that?'_

"Ganta-kun, what's wrong?" Mimi cut in worriedly, concerned about her friend's sudden behavior. Ganta looked back at his friends and took note of the serious expressions on their faces.

"You guys didn't hear that?"

His friends shared another worried look as their friend's strange behavior become more prominent.

"Hear what Ganta? Are you feeling okay?" Yamakatsu asked as he got up from his desk.

Ganta was about to respond when another wave of… whatever, washed throughout his body. He then felt an overwhelming emotion that took over Ganta's very mind; joy. Ganta could feel his heart beat faster as a joy that was not his own seemed to seep into his very soul.

_**'The egg is here!'**_

Ganta found himself unable to control his body as it turned to look out the third floor window. There, floating in the air as if it was standing on the very ground itself was a specter of death; for no other being could inspire such fear.

The figure was wearing a red, worn-out cape that obscured its torso and a mask that hid its face and eyes from view. Underneath the cape, it was wearing a heavy suit of armor that covered its body, legs and arms. To complete its look, the figure had strings of hexagonal plates surrounding it, almost obscuring the blood that dripped down its legs.

Ganta found himself unable to look away from the 'Red Man' as his classmate finally took notice of the flying person outside of their classroom. The Red man gave a single terrible smirk before he motioned to the classroom with his hand.

**!CRASH!**

XXXXXXXXXX

'_**Wake up…Wake up you wuss!'**_

"Uggh…" The strange voice rose Ganta from his trauma induced slumber though he wasn't too aware of his surroundings.

"Ow, my head…" Ganta complained as he slowly got up, opening his bleary eyes. "Mimi… Yamakatsu... are you guys okay?" Ganta rubbed his eyes for a moment before he opened them and screamed. All throughout his class the body parts of his classmates littered the floor and their blood stained the walls. It was a scene straight from hell.

"Wh-What the hell. MIMI! YAMAKATSU! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

_Drip…_

To this day Ganta would never understand how that small sound was louder then everything else. Turning his head ever so slightly, Ganta's eyes were reduced to pinpricks at the sight before him. There, soaked in the blood of his classmates, was the Red Man and in his hands were the heads of Mimi and Yamakatsu.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH HHHHHHHH!" Ganta screamed as he frantically tried to scramble away from the murderer before him. Unfortunately he backed up into the lockers in the back of the class, leaving him no room to escape from the Red Man.

Seeing Ganta awake the Red Man carelessly threw the severed heads into the pile of bodies that was once Class 5-A. He then, with an ever so casual gait, he began to walk towards Ganta.

'_What is this?'_

'_**This is madness…'**_

The Red Man drew ever closer to Ganta with his slow pace, the carnage that he created not affecting him in the slightest. It was if he was taking a summer stroll through the park and not the ruins of a blood spattered classroom.

'_Why did he kill them?'_

'_**Because he could…'**_

The man raised his right hand up towards Ganta as flecks of red crystals began to form within it.

'_This shouldn't be possible; we're on the third floor. There's no way he could get up here.'_

'_**Let go of your preconceptions and embrace the insanity.'**_

The flakes of crystal then merged to form a large, red diamond that glowed with an eerie light. Once the crystal was complete the Red Man's smirk grew wider, if that was even possible. The man then pulled his arm back and stabbed the crystal straight into Ganta's chest.

An inferno of pain erupted in Ganta's chest and spread throughout his entire body. Bright lights filled Ganta's vision as his mind could not keep up with the signals that his body was sending it. With one last thought, Ganta passed out with the image of the smirking Red man imprinted on his mind.

'_Is this the end?'_

'_**No…this is only the beginning.'**_

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(Shiro's POV.)

Shiro couldn't help but smirk as she saw that Ganta's body hadn't rejected the Nameless Worm. After all it wouldn't be good if her plan had been destroyed because Ganta couldn't handle the worm. Weather he wanted to or not, Ganta was now almost guaranteed to go to Deadman Wonderland where her alter ego could be with him. Though Shiro didn't understand why, she and her alter ego both loved this weak little boy, so she devised a plan to get him to come to her.

During a routine inspection of the Mother Goose system one of the new techies accidentally turned off one of the generators, allowing her to take over her body for a bit. Once she had broken her restraints and killed off all the personal that were monitoring her, Shiro had searched the extensive computer network for any trace of her childhood friend. Thankfully he was simple enough to find so she broke out of Deadman Wonderland, donned her ace man costume-which she made herself- and was off to get Ganta.

Once she found Ganta's school, Shiro decided to observe him and see how much he had changed in the last ten years; what she saw both pleased and angered her.

Ganta had grown up very well; he was even, dare she think it, handsome. If she was capable of feeling normal emotions Shiro might have been blushing as she stared at Ganta's face but as she was now, Shiro only looked at Ganta with a disinterred eye that hid her true feelings. Unfortunately her semi good mood that she had gained from seeing her best friend had quickly soured when she saw Ganta giving puppy eyes to that black haired bitch. Seeing her Ganta make such love-struck eyes at the black haired siren brought a stabbing pain to Shiro's heart before it was replaced by a terrible fury.

Ganta was HER friend and she would make sure that nobody would take him from her. After regaining control of her anger, Shiro used her Branch of Sin to fly up to the class room window. The expression of fear on Ganta's face brought a small smile to her face as she slaughtered everyone in the room. Everyone except for Ganta of course, she merely knocked him out for a while. It was all part of her brilliant plan, once she killed all of Ganta's classmates and left Ganta as the only survivor, that annoying fool Tamaki would take care of the rest. The mere fact that she spared someone would make Tamaki do whatever was necessary to get that person in his clutches. With any luck, Ganta will be with her in Wonderland by the end of the month.

Of course this wasn't all business for her, for some reason Shiro really enjoyed herself as she tore that black-haired, friend stealing bitch's head off.

Once she finished off the last of the puny humans in the room Shiro implemented the next part of her plan. She knew that Ganta was weak and that he would never survive in a place like Deadman Wonderland. If she was to have her friend again she would need to give him an advantage of some kind.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH HHHHHHHH!"

The sound of Ganta's scream alerted Shiro that her friend had finally woken up and saw her handiwork. Shiro casually threw the heads that were in her hands off to the side before she casually walked to her shaking friend. As Ganta cowered before her, Shiro collected a large amount of her own Nameless Worm and formed it into a huge red crystal. Once her creation was complete Shiro shoved it into Gant's chest where it fused with the rest of his body.

'_Don't worry Ganta-kun you'll be different then all those pale imitations in G-Ward.'_ Shiro thought as she watched Ganta wither in pain. _'I've given you something extra special.'_

With that Shiro turned away from Ganta to return to the prison… that's when things took a turn to the unexpected.

"Arrggghhhh!"

Shiro quickly spun around to see Ganta screaming in pain as he clawed widely at his chest.

'_What the hell.'_ Shiro thought as she returned to her spot in front of Ganta. _"What's going on? He shouldn't be reacting in this way. None of those imitations ever experienced pain when they bonded with the Worm so why is Ganta acting as if I lit him on fire.'_

Then something happened that even left Shiro dumbfounded. The Nameless Worm capsule that she had implanted in Ganta's chest began to change. What was once a brilliant red diamond slowly began to change as the blood red color of the crystal began to grow darker and darker. After a bit the capsule no longer resembled a red diamond but now it was an ebony jet that glowed with a sickly purple light. Once the process was fully completed Ganta's agonized wails ceased and his arms fell limply to his sides as his body slumped against the lockers behind him.

All was silent in the room as Shiro tried to make sense of what she just saw. She then knelt down in front of Ganta and raised her hand to inspect the black crystal. Once her gauntlet covered hand made contact with the crystal a familiar feeling filled her entire body like a flood. Shiro was still for a moment as she tried to remember where she felt the presence before a wide grin that could've belonged on a shark appeared on her face.

After all how could she not recognize the newly awoken madness within Ganta when she embraced it every single day?

Her sinister smile shrank into a small, yet genuine smile as she gently cupped the sleeping Ganta's face.

"Oh Ganta-kun." Shiro whispered to the sleeping boy. "I look forward to the madness that we can spread together."

XXXXXXX  
(Hospital Room)

Beep…..Beep….Beep…

The sound of a heart monitor was the first thing that Ganta heard as he returned to the land of the living. His eyes slowly opened only to look upon an unfamiliar pure white ceiling. Still feeling weak from… what ever happened to him, Ganta tried to find out where he was. While his mind was still muddy and his body still numb, Ganta could still move his eyes around to find out where he was. Ganta let his eyes roam around the white room and was immediately drawn to the set of medical machines that were hooked up to his right arm. Looking the other way, Ganta could see that his other arm was beneath the covers of what looked to be a hospital blanket.

'_I'm in a hospital? Why am I here?'_ Ganta thought as he tried to make think of what could've done to land him in a hospital.

"Wait, wasn't I at school." As Ganta concentrated on the missing gaps in his memory he never noticed that the beeps from his heart monitor began to speed up.

"Yeah I…I was with Mimi and Yamakatsu when…Oh Kami NO!" The memories of the deaths of his friends flashed through his eyes as his heart rate sped up even more. The beeping of the medical machine sped to match the beat of his frantic heartbeat.

'_He killed them, he killed them all. But…why didn't he kill me?'_

'_**Because a wuss like you isn't worth killing.'**_

Ganta would've jumped at the unknown voice but his body seemed to ignore what his mind was telling it to do. Once the shock of hearing the strange voice wore off, Ganta then looked around his room but saw nobody in it. He was completely alone.

"H-hello? Is anybody there?"

'_**Well I'm here, but it's not really by choice.'**_

Ganta jumped again when he heard the voice respond back to him. This time he realized that the voice wasn't come from somewhere around him, it came from inside his head. The realization that he was hearing voices in his head really disturbed Ganta.

'_Oh great, I am starting to hear voices in my head. I must be going crazy.'_

'_**Don't I wish that was true. If you were really crazy then that would mean that I'm not real and wouldn't have to deal with a sissy like you.'**_

Ganta would've responded to the voice in his head but the sound of the opening door drew his attention away from it. Ganta turned his head to the door, just in time to see a trio of stone faced men walked into the room and over to Ganta's bed. One of the mean then flashed Ganta a detective badge as he began to talk.

"Ganta Igarashi you are under arrest for the murder of your entire class."

That was when Ganta's entire worldview shattered beyond repair.

XXXXXXXXXXX

(Four weeks later: Deadman Wonderland)

At the moment, Ganta could be found nervously shuffling his feet while he stood in line with the other new inmates to Deadman Wonderland. Like the others, he was garbed in the standard dark-green jumpsuit and had a silver collar around his neck that he itched at. Honestly, he couldn't understand how his life had gone from planning on how confess to the girl he liked to being sentenced to death in the most insane prison on the entire planet.

**_'That's because you're an idiot.'_**

That was another thing that had changed for Ganta; The Voice as he so affectionately dubbed it. Ever since he had woken up after the massacre of his classmates, he could hear a deep voice in the back of his head. The Voice seemed to enjoy taunting Ganta whenever it could; calling him names, making crude comments, and, more frightening then not, making suggestions on how he should kill people.

Obviously he hadn't told anyone about The Voice since he believed that it would hurt his chances of being acquitted. Of course, with that incompetent layer of his and the mountains of falsified evidence against him made sure that he was all but guaranteed to be convicted.

At the end of his trial he was found to be guilty and was sentenced to death with no chance of parole. After that he was taken to Deadman Wonderland, the very place that he was supposed to go for his class field trip. The irony was not lost on him.

The clicking of heels on tile brought Ganta out of his sulking. He lifted his head up to see who was going to be introducing him to hell and couldn't help but blush at the sight of her.

**_'DANG! Check out the size of that chick's chest.'_**

The woman that was walking down the hallway had dark-brown hair that was kept in her prison-hat but one lock of hair hanging right of her face. She also had dark-blue eyes that were as cold as ice. She was wearing a dark blue prison-uniform with a matching hat and had a long sword strapped to her left side of her hip. Her pants were white and she had black knee-length boots. What caught Ganta's attention though, like the voice had so aptly said, was her very sizeable chest.

She, along with a few guards, stood in front of Ganta and the other new prisoners. "Welcome new inmates. As you are no doubt aware of this is Deadman Wonderland, your new home. I am the Warden, Makina."

Ganta would've listened to the rest of the explanation but a certain voice distracted him once again.

**_'Dang if this chick's running the place then we should've been sent to jail years ago.'_**

Ganta's expression became annoyed at the unwanted distraction, '_I shouldn't even be in this place, I'm innocent for crying out loud.'_

**_'Oh I know that you didn't kill your classmates. You don't have the spine for something like that.'_**

_'Shut up! This is all that Red Man's fault he's the one that should be here, not me!'_

**_'Ah but you're here and he's probably off somewhere ripping the heads off of innocent civilians. Sigh, some people have all the luck…'_**

_'That's horrible!'_ Ganta thought as the anger within him started to bleed out onto his face.

"Ahem…" The not so subtle sound of the warden clearing her throat brought Ganta out of his mental argument with the voice. Ganta looked up and saw that the cold eyes of Makina were locked onto him as he belatedly realized that some of the anger that he was feeling because of the voice was showing on his face. "Was there anything wrong with my speech just now?"

Ganta blushed a bit as he stared down at his feet in an odd combination of embarrassment and fear.

"Sorry. I was thinking of something else." Ganta responded lamely.

Makina stared at Ganta for what seemed like eternity before she snapped her fingers. A mousy, brown haired woman with glasses that had been standing with the rest of the guards hurried to her superior and handed her a manila folder. Makina then opened up the folder with a flourish and began to read its contents aloud.

"Prisoner #5580; Ganta Igarashi. Sentenced to Death Row for the murder of your entire class."

The other prisoners began to whisper amongst themselves, the idea that a scrawny kid like him killing off an entire classroom of people was surprising to say the least. Ganta ignored the muttering of the other prisoners, since they just made him feel worse than he already did.

"Well then…" Makina said as she shut the folder, "You should fit right in with all the other criminals. Now then there any questions?"

"I have one," One of the others prisoners asked without any sort of fear what so ever. "What's your cup size?"

"G-cup." Makina said without missing a beat.

**_'HOT DAMN!'_**

"Earlier you were given a bag." Makina said as she resumed her normal introduction speech. Ganta, on the other hand was already rummaging through said bag as the warden continued to talk. "In that bag are a small amount of supplies for newcomers."

As Ganta looked through his bag, he never noticed the trolley that was slowly approaching him.

"Now then, about your neck restraints…"

**!BANG!**

The trolley that had been sneaking up behind Ganta had run into him with a resounding crash. Oddly enough, Ganta barely felt the cart as it rammed into the back of his legs. Sure the surprise of the impact made him drop his bag onto the floor, but other than that he was totally fine. The pusher of the cart on the other hand….

"Oww, did I hit a wall or something?"

From behind the trolley a young man stepped out with his arms clutched around his stomach, where the handles of the trolley punched him in the gut. The young man was very slim, and had grey hair that hung over his left eye. He was wearing a standard prison-uniform, like the one Ganta had been given to wear and a matching neck restraint around his throat.

The boy then saw the person that he had run into and instantly went into an apologetic fit, "Oh my gosh, are you alright? Here let me help you with that."

The boy then knelt down and started to help Ganta pick up his stuff. Makina's eyes narrowed slightly at the boy before she walked up to the two kneeling boys. "You there, trolley kid. If you return the item that you just took then I'll let you off with a warning."

The gray-haired kid had a look of confusion on his face as he looked up at the buxom female warden.

"Uhh, sorry but all I did was bump into this guy. It's a little hard to see over all of the boxes."

Ganta then decided to speak up in defense of the one decent guy he's met so far today. "Hey it's okay. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, besides I wasn't even hurt."

Makina's right hand then gripped her sword as she began to speak in her usual frosty and clipped tone, "Very well then, if you won't return what you have stolen then I expect you to compensate in another way."

In a motion that was merely a blur to most people Mikana drew her sword and delivered a deep slash to the gray haired boy's shoulder, which then released a large amount of blood.

"AAARRRGGGHHHH!"

Ganta froze up as the sight of the blood brought back the memories of his friend's massacre. He was so stunned that he didn't even notice as people scrambled around him to get the injured boy some help. Ganta did hear the Voice give one last parting comment though.

**_'Dang, busty and bloodthirsty. I think I'm in love'_**

XXXXXXXXXX

(Deadman Wonderland: Ganta's Cell)

Ganta sat along in his new cell, once again thinking about his situation. The entire situation was unfair, he didn't deserve any of this. His hands were gripped together so tightly that they turned a pale white from the lack of blood flowing into them. Thinking back to what happened back in the hallway brought a fresh wave of fear to the boy's fragile mind. The madness of this place and the situation that he found himself in was starting to overwhelm his thoughts.

"What is this place…?" Ganta muttered to himself as he tried to find some semblance of sanity in what he's seen of Deadman Wonderland so far.

**_'If Officer Busty's speech was any indication then this is a prison. Of the fact that you got thrown in here for your "supposed" crime was probably too subtle for you to figure out on your own.'_**

Seeing that he was alone for now, Ganta decide to speak to the voice out loud, after all why not just confirm that that he was insane and get it over with.

"But I don't deserve to be here. I'm innocent." Ganta muttered with fear and desperation coloring his voice.

**_'That doesn't matter. You and I both know that you're innocent but to the rest of the world, you're just a murderer.'_**

Ganta gripped his head as his eyes became unfocused; the mental strain of everything that was happening to him was finally starting to get to him. "This shouldn't be happening to me. I don't deserve any of this."

**_'Oh don't you start going all emo on me you wuss. Look on the bright side of things.'_**

Something snapped within Ganta at the voice's casual dismissal of the situation. "Bright side? WHAT POSSIBLE BRIGHT SIDE COULD THERE BE?! MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD AND EVERYONE THINKS THAT I DID IT!"

**_'Well at least you have your health. Your classmates on the other hand can't say the same thing.'_**

The anger that Ganta felt was instantly washed away as another wave of angst took hold of his mind. The memory of Mimi and Yamakatsu's severed heads in the hands of the Red Man made bile rise in his throat but he managed to choke it back. After a few minutes of gather his thoughts and fighting back his depression Ganta sighed once again and he stared intensely at his hands. His expression was one of resignation, like a man who's given up all hope on living to the next day.

"Perhaps…it would be better if I was dead." Ganta whispered to himself, believing that no one but the voice in his head would hear his suicidal thoughts.

How wrong he was.

**!CRASH!**

Without any warning of any kind, the barred window of Ganta's cell exploded inwards as something broke through it with a great amount of force. Ganta's hands instinctively flew up to his head to protect himself from the shower of glass and metal that once made up his window. Once the downpour of dangerous material ended Ganta moved his arms away from his head to see what had broken through his window. What he saw both confused him and made his face as red as a tomato at the same time.

Standing amongst the shards of glass was a young girl about his age who stood with her back facing Ganta. The reflection of light from the shards seemed to make her glow in an almost ethereal way and her odd appearance only heightened her mystery. The girl's hair was as white as snow, and almost seemed to glow with a heavenly light, and her skin was extremely pale, as though she had never seen the light of day. Her white hair was very long, reaching all the way down to her feet and while it was a little wavy most of it ran straight. She wore a white, skintight bodysuit that had red swirls like decorations along the length of it. From what he could see of her neck, she was wearing a neck brace of some kind like the ones doctors used to keep a patients head stationary. The girl wore no shoes of any kind and her toes stuck out of her bodysuit along with her heels. Finally, she wore a pair of large brown gloves that completely covered her hands completely.

The girl then turned around, allowing Ganta to get a look at her face. Like her hair, the mysterious girl's eyebrows and eyelashes were snow-white but it was her eyes that drew his attention the most. They were as red as blood but they shined with an innocence and love that he never thought he would see in a place like Deadman Wonderland.

"Ganta-kun…" The girl began to say with a tone of childish glee in her voice. "Are you ready to die now?"

That was when he noticed the big piece of glass in the strange girl's hand.

**_'Oh crap.'_**

'Oh crap'

* * *

**And that's the revision of the first chapter, hoped everyone liked it. Make sure to leave a review of what you thought or else Sniper Kitty will get you.**


	2. We're All Mad Here

**A/N; Hey everyone this is Sharkteeth with the newest revised chapter of Black Blood Woodpecker. **

"Welcome to Deadman Wonderland./**Where everyone is a little mad."** People/Ragnarok talking

'_The cake is a lie__**/ Eat the muffins instead' **_People/ Ragnarok thinking

"The insanity is all consuming." Techniques being used

Disclaimer: I do not own Deadman Wonderland or Soul Eater in anyway shape or form.

**Warning: The following fic has scenes of violence and language so if you read this then you must understand that and are reading this for the violence and language.**_** (Really this is probably only a T-rated story but with the deletion craze that the monitors were going through I decided to just put this as an M-rating. Of course it will eventually be M-rated since it Deadman-Wonderland gets more gruesome as it goes along)**_

* * *

Chapter 2: We're All Mad Here…

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Deadman Wonderland: Ganta's Cell)

Ganta was currently sitting in his cell with a piece of paper in one hand and a pencil in the other. His face was screwed up in a look of concentration as he tried to figure out what to write on the paper. For the last few hours he had been trying to write out a will for himself in the highly likely case that he would die in prison. Unfortunately this was proving to be very, very difficult for him to do since it would also mean that he would acknowledge the fact that his death may be in the near future.

Normally Ganta wouldn't have ever considered writing a will at his age but after he had learned of the mechanics of the collar around his neck he knew that his time was near. If he was going to die, he at least wanted to leave some final words behind for his friends and family.

**_'Neither of which you have, sissy.'_**

Ganta's face fell at the sound of the familiar voice from within his head. The self-stigma of having a voice that actually talks to him in his head had worn out after his first day in Deadman Wonderland. That didn't make it easier to deal with though; in fact it seemed to be getting more active with each passing day. Though all the voice seemed to want to do was belittle and taunt him whenever it could, no matter what kind of situation that Ganta found himself in.

"Shut up Ragnarok…" Ganta muttered to himself, or more specifically Ragnarok. "You know that I have Shiro."

That was one thing that Ganta had never expected; that the voice inside his head had an actual name of its own. He had learned it, or rather had been forced to learn it, during a dangerous incident that happened after his first encounter with Shiro. Later when Ganta had asked why Ragnarok told him his name before the incident all he got was some excuse about him not being "awesome" enough to be graced with the knowledge of the "Mighty Ragnarok's" name.

Ganta paused in his writing as he realized he had just said without thinking. "That's right…" He mumbled as the memories of his first day in Deadman Wonderland came back to him.

"I have Shiro now."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(Flashback: Two Days Earlier)

The white-clad girl lunged at Ganta with a large shard of glass tightly clasped within her mitten-covered hand. The intention behind her actions was clear as day, so Ganta did what anyone would do when someone was trying to impale them with a weapon; he got the hell out of the way.

**_'DODGE LEFT! DODGE LEFT!'_**

For once, Ganta didn't question the voice and did what had said. With reflexes that had been born from years of playing Dodge Ball in P.E., Ganta leapt to the side and narrowly avoided the girl's lunge. The shard that the apparently crazy girl was holding became impaled in his mattress, right where he had once been sitting.

As Ganta struggled to get his heartbeat under control from his near death experience, the girl had let go of the piece of glass and was now staring directly at him. She then tilted her head to the side as a confused expression appeared on her face.

"Why did you dodge that?" The girl asked with the same tone of child-like innocence that she had used when she attempted to stab him.

Ganta was flabbergasted at the situation that was laid before him. A strange girl had burst into his cell, tried to kill him by impaling him with a shard of broken glass, and then asked him why he had dodged her attempt at ending his life.

_'What's wrong with her?' _Ganta thought with no small amount of confusion.

_'**Oh Ganta… there are just so many ways to answer that question of yours.' **_ The tone in the voice's suggested that it knew something that he didn't, but the strange albino girl before him had effectively captured all of his attention.

The girl continued to stare at Ganta for with a look of confusion and contemplation on her face, as though she was trying to figure out the solution to a difficult puzzle.

_'That white hair… those red eyes…'_ For some reason, Ganta could've sworn that he had seen that odd combination somewhere before. However, for the life of him, he couldn't remember where he had seen it. The mystery that girl represented caused Ganta to frown due to the oddness of the situation. _'Is it possible that she's another prisoner?'_

A look of understanding flooded across the girl's face for a second before she did something completely unexpected. The girl bent down to Ganta's level and… snuggled against him. Ganta's face reddened in the form of a scarlet blush as the girl pressed her body against his. Her head was at level with his heart while her hands kept him in place as they gripped his arms.

"W-What are you doing?" Ganta squeaked out in surprise, the blush on his face growing evermore present as the girl pressed her body tightly to his.

The girl didn't bother answering Ganta's question as she listened to his heart beat for a moment or two.

"Ahh I see..." The girl said as if she had figured out the answer to a difficult question. The girl then let go of Ganta and backed away from him. Before Ganta could stand up and potentially get away from the obviously crazy, she gently placed one of her mitten covered hands on his chest, right over his heart.

"I want to die was a lie." The girl said without any doubt in her voice. Then she gave Ganta one of the brightest smiles that he had ever seen. "At least that's what here says."

**!GROWL!**

The somewhat tender moment was ruined by the loud roar of hunger that came from Ganta's stomach. The growl seemed to please the girl as an enormous grin appeared on her face and her eyes closed in delight. "See, its roaring! It agrees with Shiro!"

"That's not what it means!" Ganta shouted in indignation, all the while his face red with embarrassment from the rather embarrassing way that the gentle moment had been shattered. "Anyways why do you care if I want to live or die? It has nothing to do with you!"

The girl, Shiro apparently, looked at him tenderly as the light from the broken window shined behind her, making her appear as some sort of angel. "Of course it does."

She said as she smiled warmly. "Because Ganta and Shiro are friends."

_**'Oh, isn't that sweet? I think that I may puke.'**_

"Wait… How do you know my name?" Ganta asked, with confusion lining his voice. He obviously would've remembered meeting this strange girl but something in the back of his mind, besides the voice, stopped him from outright denying what she claimed to be true. Unfortunately, his memory became muddled with fuzzy images and muffled sounds as he tried to recall the white haired girl before him.

Shiro looked down at Ganta with happiness and nostalgia alight in her eyes, "A long time ago… we promised… that we would always be friends."

Shiro then removed the mitten on her right hand and showed him her palm. The first thing that Ganta noticed was that all along Shiro's hand were scars that could only come from some pretty severe injuries. Then Ganta saw something that was drawn on her palm which instantly captured his attention. On her palm, freshly drawn if the ink smudges were any indication, was his signature mark that he put on everything. Three circles within one another with a slice cut away from them and a leaf attached to the side of it.

As he looked at what was clearly his mark, something within Ganta's mind broke free. One of his fuzzy memories cleared up as he could suddenly remember an enormous room with a grand piano inside of it. In the memory he was sitting on the floor with another child next to him. He could tell that the child was a girl but that was it. Her entire face was clouded from his eyes and her voice was muffled as though she was trying to speak through cotton. Ganta could then remember his younger self drawing his signature mark on the girl's right palm, right where Shiro had drawn the mark on herself.

Before he could make any sense of the memory, it faded away into the deep recesses of his mind. When it was fully gone, Ganta was left with a sense that he should be remembering something else, but for the life of him he couldn't recall what it was.

"I don't remember anything like that!" Ganta lied as he backed away from Shiro, shaking his head slightly as if to drive away the errant memory. He then looked up at her with anger and confusion in his voice. "Besides even if that was true who in their right mind would try to kill a friend?!"

Shiro tilted her head to the side and stared at him as if he had said something that was extremely confusing, "But didn't you kill your friend's Ganta?"

The seemingly innocent question caused Ganta's eyes to widen as the memories of his classmates bodies flashed through his mind. The thought of their mutilated corpses forced him to fight back another wave of bile that he almost couldn't force back as tears began to form against the edges of his eyes.

"I would never…" Ganta said shakily, his inner turmoil coming to the surface through the sadness and anger in his voice. "Kill any of my friends!

Oddly enough, the voice remained quiet at Ganta's sign fragile state. There were no witty remarks on how he was a wuss or a sissy or how he should have murdered his classmates. It was just quiet, which was a huge relief to Ganta since he didn't know if he could take it if it mocked him now.

The sound of his cell door opening brought Ganta out of his memories as the mousy brunette that he saw with the warden walk into his cell. "Hey, it's time for your work in Section A. Hurry up and go…" That's when she noticed the broken glass on the floor and the small cuts in Ganta's uniform. "What is this? What happened here?!"

Ganta was about to say that it was Shiro who had broken the window but then he noticed that Shiro had disappeared, it was if she was never there in the first place.

_'Where did she go?' _Ganta thought as the warden's assistant ushered him out of his cell.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(Flashback END!)

Ganta looked through the fixed window of his cell, all the while thinking about his strange first encounter with Shiro. _'She seems so innocent and happy. So why is she here?'_

Then the events of the rest of the day were brought to the forefront of his mind. Ganta looked down at his hand as he thought about what happened at the construction site.

_'And that power that I used… what was it?'_

XXXXXXXXXX

(Flashback: Section A Construction Yard)

After the guard had finished berating Ganta about the broken window in his cell, she had directed him to Section A where he would be working for the rest of the day. Once Ganta got there, another guard told him what he would be doing and sent him off to work alongside of another few inmates.

At the moment, Ganta was pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks towards one of the unopened sections of Deadman Wonderland. The sun was beginning its downwards decent into the twilight hours of the day. Unfortunately it did little to take away from the heat of the day as Ganta was starting to perspire from the heat. Apparently a large part of his sentence was to be served out by building new additions to the prison. Once again, the irony was not lost on him.

Oddly enough Ganta was barely winded by the work that he had gone through during the last couple of hours. As much as he hated to admit it, Ganta knew that when compared to others of his age, he was scrawny as hell. With barely any muscles on his bones and his lack of interest in any and all sports in general, Ganta should've been at least been panting from the strain of the work. Instead, besides the sweat from the heat of the day, Ganta felt completely fine.

Of course the work did seem infinitely harder to him due to the fact that the voice would not shut up. It seemed to be making up for the time when it was silent in his cell by giving him a massive headache from all the suggestions that it was kept telling Ganta to do. Unfortunately, all of the suggestions usually involved with someone ending up dead and bleeding.

**_'I'm telling you Ganta… just pick up one of the sharper rocks and slip it into your pocket. No one's looking, so they'll never know you took it.'_**

Ganta frowned at what the voice had told him to do as he dumped the rocks in the wheel barrel onto the pile where they were supposed to go to, _'And why do I need a sharp rock?'_

**_'That's simple, the next time that mousey assistant comes into your cell, you cut her tendons with the rock knife that you're going to make and demand to be released or else you'll slit her throat.'_**

Ganta shuddered at the gruesome image in his mind and decided it would be best to ignore the voice for now. Unfortunately that seemed to make the voice angry as it started to yell at him again, though Ganta wasn't listening to it anymore. After a bit the voice finally quieted down and left him to work in peace, something that Ganta was eternally grateful for.

**!CLANG!**

The sound of something heavy hitting metal made Ganta lose his grip on the handles of the wheel barrel, sending it and the rocks that he had placed in it tumbling to the ground. Ganta then spun around to see what had caused the noise and saw that a manhole cover was rocketing away from the ground at impressive speeds. Then, looking down at the manhole itself, Ganta saw Shiro pulling herself out of the hole like some kind of demented white rabbit.

"I found Ganta!" Shiro yelled happily as she waved to Ganta, who could only dumbly wave back in response.

_'How did she find me!?'_ Ganta thought as he watched Shiro pull herself from the manhole. When she was fully out, Ganta finally noticed the small burlap bag that she was holding with right hand. The bulged slightly in certain spots as its contents were thrown about within as Shiro ran up to Ganta in her seemingly perpetual excited state.

Once Shiro was in front of Ganta she began to bounce up and down in excitement and started talking to him in a super excited tone. "Ganta I have something for you! One second…"

Shiro then reached into her burlap bag and pulled something out from the depths of it. Once the object was in her hand, Shiro shoved it in front of Ganta's face so that he could take it from her. Ganta looked at the object in Shiro's hand and found himself to be even more confused than he already was; if that was even possible.

"…A cookie?" Ganta muttered in a bewildered tone.

Indeed, the object in Shiro's hands was an ordinary chocolate and almond cookie. The only odd thing about the cookie though was the bite that had been taken out of its side. However the thing that seem strange to Ganta was the seemingly innocent gift that was being given to him in the first place. After all, from what he's seen so far, the inhabitants of Deadman Wonderland don't seem like the type to just give out random backed goods.

"Yeah!" Shiro exclaimed with that same mile wide grin on her face. "Shiro heard that if you share snacks with friends, then they'll taste even better!"

Ganta was amazed by this girl's seemingly endless desire to be close to him. No matter how many times he had told Shiro that he wasn't her friend, she still insisted that she was. Don't get him wrong, having Shiro trying her best to make him her friend was flattering but… he had just lost all of his other friends in a brutal attack that seemed to be directed at him. Needless to say he really wasn't quite ready to make new friends while the image of his old one's corpses was still fresh in his mind.

"I'm sorry but I already told you…"

_**'Ganta if you don't eat that damn cookie right now then I'll put tacks in your shoes, gupi.'**_

Ganta didn't even know if that was possible but, before he could contemplate it more, Shiro brought him out of his musings. While Ganta was distracted by the voice, Shiro had walked up right to Ganta so that her face was extremely close to his. Once her face was level with his, she gave Ganta another heartwarming smile and began to speak in a soft but serious tone.

"You should eat it Ganta…If 'I want to die' was a lie then you should cheer up some." She said to him, all the while the smile never leaving her face.

Ganta was stunned at Shiro's simple reasoning of his problems. Was it really as simple as that? While it was true that he had no wish to die, was it really possible for him to regain his happiness just like that? He looked down at the cookie in his hands as if it would hold the answer to all of his questions.

Not even a second later Ganta made his decision as he brought the cookie up to his mouth. Ganta then took a bite of the cookie and was amazed by how… good it actually tasted. It was without a doubt the best tasting cookie that he ever had.

Ganta then noticed that Shiro was still staring at him with hopeful eyes, seemingly waiting for his verdict on the snack that she gave him.

"Your right Shiro…" A large, and very genuine, smile spread across Ganta's face as he looked at the albino girl. "Snacks do taste better when you share them with friends."

Shiro's smile grew even larger before she cheered in happiness. Her mood was so bright and infectious that Ganta couldn't help but join in on her laughter. It seemed as if he just made a friend in the one place that was determined to kill him. And honestly, for the first time in what seemed to be forever, Ganta was happy.

**!BAM!**

Ganta's head suddenly jerked forward as something thumped him on the back of his head. Unfortunately, like before with the trolley, the surprise of the impact made him drop the cookie in his hand; much to the horror of Shiro who dived down to catch it before it hit the ground. Surprisingly, blow to his head didn't hurt at all, so Ganta just thought that someone had thrown something soft at him in an attempt to gain his attention. So, curious as he was to what hit him, he looked down to see what was thrown. His eyes then widened in surprise when he saw that the thing that smacked him in the back of his head was not something soft at all; it was a prison issue hardhat that the guards issue to the prisoners.

Ganta didn't have time to wonder how it was possible that he just shrugged off a blow from a hardhat when a loud and obnoxious voice rang through the air. "Hey you, newbie! Stop slacking off with the chick and get back to work."

Ganta turned away from Shiro, who was childishly crying over the broken cookie on the ground, and saw a trio of prisoners walk up to them with smug grins on their faces. The three seemed to be just the average type of bullies, people who wouldn't dare talk against someone stronger than them but liked to pick on the weak to make themselves feel better. One was tall and fat, another one was short and had a ponytail, and the last had a pompadour hairstyle of all things but all of them had a smirk of superiority on their faces as they stared down at Ganta and Shiro.

When the three other prisoners—Fatty, Shorty, and Punk, The Voice vocally categorized them—actually got a good look at their Ganta's face, a look of realization spread replaced their normal dazed look.

"Wait a minute I know you…" Punk muttered before he pulled a magazine from his jumpsuit and started to flip through it. Evidently he found the page he was looking for when he reached about halfway through the magazine. With a loud "aha!" Punk seemed to find what he was looking for and then tossed the magazine to the thin member of the bully squad. "You're that kid from the Nagano Massacre right?"

Shorty looked from the magazine in his hands to Ganta's face before an arrogant smirk appeared on his face, "Yeah that's right, you're the kid who killed all of those students in that classroom." Shorty then turned his attention to Fatty. "A few of them were his friends apparently."

"I bet that they deserved it. So tell us how does it feel being on death row?" Fatty said with a laugh as he grilled Ganta for details on how he killed his class mates.

Ganta could not believe it, it was happening again. Was this what his life was reduced to? People asking him whether or not if he enjoyed killing his classmates? He would never hurt his friends but no one seemed to believe him no matter how many times he screamed it out loud.

_'I don't know how to deal with this anymore. How can I make these people stop?_ Ganta thought in desperation, not noticing how his hands began to shake or how his eyes were slowly starting to lose their color. While the three inmates didn't notice the subtle changes that Ganta was undergoing, Shiro did notice that the three men's words were hurting her friend and she would not stand for that.

_**'That's simple, just kill these guys. It wouldn't be that hard.'**_ The voice suggested as the taunting from the trio grew louder to his ears. Their mocking voices were then replaced with the voices of the parents who attended his trial. Their voices, thick with hatred and malice, all screamed at him to die and how they wanted their children back.

Ganta tried to put up a feeble argument against the voice, but as he was about to fall into the dark pit of despair a miracle happened; someone stood up for him. Shiro had apparently gotten over the broken cookie on the ground and came to Ganta's defense like a super hero protecting an innocent civilian. With strength that a body like hers shouldn't posse, Shiro had pushed Punk away from Ganta then stood protectively in front of Ganta with her arms out stretched to her sides. Her normally happy expression was twisted into one of anger as she stared at the three bullies.

"Don't you lie. Ganta said that he would never kill his friends so don't you lie." Shiro said with the utmost conviction in her voice.

Ganta stared at Shiro's back in shock as the shaking in his hands subsided and the color returned to his grey eyes. She… she actually believed him. Ganta almost couldn't believe it. Shiro was the only person that believed him when he said that he hadn't killed his friends. Not even Mimi's father, the man who helped raised him, believe that he hadn't been responsible for the death of his daughter; he actually attempted to kill Ganta at the end of the trial. All of a sudden Ganta's heartbeat began to speed up as warmth spread throughout his chest as he stared at the back of Shiro's form.

_'What is this feeling? It's like the times that I was around Mimi but… better somehow.' _Ganta thought with no small amount of confusion.

Fatty apparently had enough of the "weak" little girl standing up to them so he rushed forward with his fist raised, honestly expecting the white-haired girl to go down quite easily. "Shut up you bitch, woman should just stay in the south bunks!"

Shiro didn't even bother to move out of the way of the fat man's bull rush and looked at his attempt at harming her with an expression of boredom on her face. Just as Fatty threw his punch towards Shiro's face, she leaned her whole body back and easily dodged the sloppy punch. She then leaned back even further and preformed a reverse cartwheel. Her foot solidly smacked Fatty's chin as it came up with the upwards momentum that her move created, sending the obese prisoner to the ground with a resounding smack.

"You bitch…" Punk shouted as he watched his friend get beaten by what they thought to be a weak little girl. He then rushed at Shiro's unprotected back with his work shovel in his grip and swung it at the back of Shiro's head. The blade of the shovel hit the back of Shiro with a solid 'thwack', making Ganta's eyes go wide in fear for his new friend. The force of the blow sent Shiro falling foreword, knocking her into the land of unconsciousness even before she hit the ground.

As Ganta watched Shiro, the only person to believe his innocence, become hurt just because she was trying to stand up for him something seemed to snap within him. The sounds of the yard became clearer, the sights sharper, and above all he could feel his blood pulse from within his veins. Then he heard Punk and his friends laughing at their supposed victory before Punk stepped forward to deliver a finishing blow to the downed Shiro.

"Stupid bitch should've just stayed outta the way." Punk said as he raised the shovel over his head, readying himself to deliver another bone crunching blow to the girl.

_**'It's going to happen again.'**_ The voice mocked Ganta as he stared at the three inmates. **_'__Your friend will die and you're too weak to stop it. Just like what happened to your friends at your school, Shiro will die and you will do nothing but watch it happen.'_**

Ganta's eyes widened with panic before they narrowed in rage. Ganta clenched his fists tightly; his fingernails began to bite into his palms but did not draw blood. _'No!'_

Ganta then rushed forward, determined to stop Punk from killing Shiro. _'I will never allow my friends to die again while I could do something to protect them! Shiro will not die!'_

"YOU BASTARDS!"

With that battle roar, Ganta raised his fist and attempted to punch Punk's face in. Punk saw the enraged boys attack and easily sidestepped the sloppy punch and grabbed Ganta by his jumpsuit, tearing it around the chest area of it. Punk then brought Ganta closer to him and head-butted him, probably thinking that a scrawny kid like him would go down with a single hit.

This proved to be a mistake on his part.

"OW! Ow! Ow! _Ow!_"

Punk immediately pulled his head away from Ganta's as he rubbed the angry red spot on his forehead. Seeing his chance, Ganta punched Punk with his right fist and was rewarded with the crunching sound of the man's nose breaking. Punk fell to the ground and in pain as he desperately tried to stop the flow of blood from his now bent nose. Seeing that his other friend was injured by the Ganta, Shorty picked up Punk's dropped shovel that had been on the ground and swung it at Ganta with as much force as he could muster.

Ganta would've tried to dodge the swing but a familiar voice kept him in his place. _**'Ganta, don't move…'**_

_'Are you insane?! Why would I do that?' _The shovel's blade grew closer and closer to Ganta as he had his internal argument with the voice.

**_'Trust me, just raise your right arm and block the shovel. You'll be fine…probably.'_**

Ganta would've not listened to the voice in his head but it had been helpful recently. So, despite his better judgment, Ganta raised his right arm up into the path of the shovel. Shorty's expression turned into one of glee when he saw that Ganta wouldn't dodge his attack.

**!CLANG!**

The expression of glee quickly turned to one of horror as Shorty's shovel blade was stopped dead by Ganta's unprotected arm. Ganta was also shocked into a silence so deep that he was barely aware when Shorty dropped the shovel and had run away, leaving his friends behind.

All Ganta could do was stare at his unharmed arm with a sense of shock and amazement. Wait… that wasn't entirely true; on Ganta's wrist was a small cut which could barely even be considered a paper cut. But from the cut, a single drop of thick black liquid began to ooze out. Almost as if in a trance, Ganta scooped up the droplet of black liquid and brought it to his mouth and tasted it. A metallic, coppery flavor hit his tongue and Ganta instantly knew what the liquid was. It was his blood.

_'What the hell was that? Why is my blood black and how did I block that shovel?'_ Ganta thought as he stared as the still leaking cut on his wrist.

_**'Yeah, you can start thanking me now.' **_The voice said with no small amount of smugness in its tone.

_'Wait… you did this? But… how?' _Ganta thought as he tried to make sense of the whole situation.

_**'How doesn't matter, all that matters is that you owe me one now. I expect at the very least fifty pieces of candy as compensation. Now wake up your little girl friend so we can get back to eating those snacks.'**_

_'SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!' _Ganta thought in exasperation as a fiery red blush appeared on his face.

**!BOOOM!**

The sound of an explosion drew Ganta's attention upwards as the blush on his face was instantly replaced with a look of horror. The large globe atop the unfinished tower was knocked clear of its support by a large explosion and was now falling towards him. Ganta knew that there was no way to dodge it, especially since Shiro was still knocked out besides him and couldn't get away on her own. He and his friend were going to die…

_'I don't know how to deal with what's going to happen next but I really want to go home.' _Ganta hopelessly thought as he stared at the fall globe that would surely be his death.

_**'This is home for now you sissy.'**_ The voice said as small pieces of debris began to rain around Ganta and Shiro. _**'That is… until you are strong enough to do something about it. Right now you cannot do anything to change your fate since you don't even have enough power to save your life.'**_

_'But there are so many things that I want to do still. I can't die yet_.' Ganta thought as the globe drew closer and closer to crushing him.

**_'If you really want to live then use your power to save yourself.'_**

_'My…power?' _Ganta asked the voice as a purple glow began to emanate from his chest.

**_'Yes your power. And as an added bonus I'll lend you a bit of my own power free of charge…IF, you address me by my name from now on, gupi.'_**

The globe was halfway to Ganta who still made no move to get out of its way but the glowing from his chest grew even brighter. _'You have a name?'_

_**'Of course I have a name…You did give it to me after all. All you have to do…is remember…'**_

Ganta's eyes widened as the memory of a child's picture instantly came to the forefront of his mind. It was crudely drawn and barely looked human but at the bottom of the picture, in children's block letters, was a name. A name that he suddenly remembered with infinite clarity.

_'Ragnarok…your name is Ragnarok.'_

_**'Peee-Yooww! That is the correct answer, now go save you're your little girlfriend and get me some candy!'**_

The glowing from Ganta's chest became almost blinding as a large ebony crystal emerged from his flesh. From the cut on Ganta's right wrist, a literal river of black blood began to fly into the air around him. The blood then began to collect in the palm of his hands as two lines of vertical blue hexagons circled around it. As more and blood collected in his hand the lines of hexagons began to change; they started to stretch and smooth out, even darkening in color, as they grew longer and thinner. As the last bit of the flying black blood merged with the rest in his hand, the hexagons now resembled vertical eyes with a black pupil in the center of them.

"I WANT TO LIVE!" Ganta then thrusted his hand forward as the blood launched away from his palm like a bullet from a gun. The blood bullet hit the falling globe and both stalled in the air for a second before a large cracking sound filled the air. The force of the bullet eventually overcame the globe and pierced right through its exterior; shattering the globe into millions of harmless pieces.

Ganta could only sit on the ground and pant heavily as what just occurred played through his mind and two words escaped from his mouth.

"I'm alive?" Ganta said in shock, as though he couldn't believe that he had truly lived through the ordeal.

That was when Ganta remembered that he was not the only one who had almost died. "Oh my Kami, Shiro!"

Ganta spun around and found Shiro in the exact same spot that she was before though now she was surrounded by large pieces of debris. Her slow breathing indicated that she was sleeping peacefully as though she wasn't almost crushed by a falling globe.

"Munya." Shiro mumbled in her sleep as she rolled over to face Ganta. "Ganta, I'm so full..."

Ganta felt himself smiling as he watched his friend dream of sweet treats and good friends. '_I'm really glad that you're okay, Shiro… Perhaps this won't be so bad after all.'_

XXXXXXXXX

(Flashback END!)

Ganta stared at his hands some more as the last of the memories played through his head. The thoughts of the strange power, his black blood and even the mystery of Ragnarok brought a migraine to his head as he tried to make sense of it all.

'_**By the way, you still owe me that candy.' **_Ragnarok said from with the depths of his mind.

Ganta couldn't help but sigh at Ragnarok's insistence for candy since it seemed pointless at this time. "What's the point Ragnarok we're both going to be dead by the end of the day?"

'_**The point is that you owe me and I plan on collecting before you kick the bucket."**_

Ganta became even more depressed as Ragnarok went on and on about the candy that he owed him. The issue on food in general brought the rather unpleasant memory of yesterday's events to the forefront of his mind since it was also during yesterday's events that he learned that he was going to die.

XXXXXXXXXXX

(Flashback-Deadman Wonderland Cafeteria-)

'_Holy crap…'_

Ganta had entered one of the cafeteria areas of Deadman Wonderland absolutely famished. After the events of the day before, Ganta had completely forgotten to eat dinner so when he had woken up that morning he was starving. So with the help of a wall map and a few helpful guards Ganta made him his way to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Unfortunately it seems as if Ganta will be dining with about one-hundred of the meanest, toughest looking convicts that he's ever seen.

'_I don't know how to deal with all of these tough looking prisoner's.' _Ganta thought nervously as everyone glared at each other with unconcealed malice. Ganta made himself as small as possible and made his way through the cafeteria until he found the counter where they were serving food.

'_**Don't be a wuss.' **_Ragnarok spoke from within his mind, _**'I'm sure that you can take on at least ninety percent of the guy's in the room at this moment. Besides if anyone gives you any lip then you'll just blow them away with that power of yours.'**_

'_That does nothing to comfort me Ragnarok.' _Ganta thought as he picked up one of the serving trays and got in line. _'You know that I don't understand that power. How am I supposed to use it if I know nothing about it?'_

Ganta then finally made it to the front of the line to receive his food. _'Besides, all that I care about right now is getting some breakfast.'_

**!Clunk!**

Sitting on his tray as innocently as it could be was a square white…thing. Ganta guessed it was food but he wasn't too sure since it kinda looked like chalk. Almost as if in a trance Ganta turned his head to the side just in time to see the person at another counter being served a medium rare steak with a side of fried shrimp.

'_**Ganta…' **_Ragnarok began, in an utterly serious tone, as Ganta's mind began to swim with hunger_,__** 'Take your knife stab that guy in the chest and take his food.'**_

Normally Ragnarok's homicidal suggestions would be ignored by Ganta but the combination of stress and hunger was making him consider doing what Ragnarok was telling him to do. After all who was he to deny what his stomach was telling to do. As Ganta was about to grab the butter knife on his tray and impale it through the guy's eyeball, someone elbowed him out of the way.

"Hey…" The person behind him said as she took his spot. "If you're done ordering food then get out of the way."

Ganta turned around and found himself looking at another odd girl in a prison uniform. She was taller than Ganta and had pink feathered hair that just barely reaches her shoulders and had small, subtle spikes in it. What drew Ganta's attention the most though were her eyes. Her golden-yellow eyes.

Another foreign memory assaulted Ganta's mind as he watched a women with similar eyes stare down at him. Only these eyes were different than the ones that the girl in front of him had. These eyes were filled with nothing but madness and evil as they looked down at Ganta like a snake staring down at a mouse before it striked. Then like waking up from a nightmare the memory was gone and Ganta was once again standing in the cafeteria.

Ganta was thoroughly disturbed by the memory but refocused on the girl as she picked up her lunch. His stomach complained once again when he saw that she received a sandwich and salad instead of that square white thing that they gave him. The girl then saw that Ganta was unashamedly staring at her food with a starving expression on his face. She then looked down at his tray and her face twisted into an expression of disgust as she saw the white block siting on his tray.

"Do you really like nasty stuff like that?" Then a metaphorical light bulb went over her head as she seemed to realize something. "Or is it that you don't have any money?"

"Money?" Ganta asked in confusion, momentarily tearing his attention away from the lady's food. "We aren't allowed to have money are we?"

"Not actual money stupid, Cast Points." She then pointed towards the lunch menu on the wall. Instead of the regular currency everything was listed in 'CP' which only confused Ganta further. "The currency that the prisoners use are Cast Points and if you don't have any then you will only be provided the most basic of necessities…"

Seeing Ganta's blank stare of confusion the girl sighed in frustration as she continued to talk. "Did you even bother reading the rule book? The sooner that you realize that you're a convicted felon the sooner you can actually survive in this place."

Ganta features turned into a grimace, not just from the realization that he forgot to read the rule book that they gave him but also from the fact that another person thought he was a criminal. Granted that he was sent to jail, but he was not an actual criminal.

'_I am not a criminal.'_

'_**You were just about to gouge a guy's eyeballs out with a butter knife so you could steal his food.'**_

Ganta was brought out of his self-monologue when his tray became slightly heavier. Looking down at his tray Ganta saw that the pink haired woman had placed her sandwich on his tray.

"There you go, only half though since I'm living like a bum too." The pink haired girl said as she gave Ganta half her meal.

To Ganta she was the angel of kindness right now since his stomach was still affecting his mindset. "Thank you so much, I was starving! My name is Ganta Igarashi!"

The girl gained a slight blush at the unusually enthusiastic gratitude that she was getting from the smaller boy, "…Azami. My name is Azami Midou.'

'_**Ganta you dog…'**_ Ragnarok wolf-whistled from the back of Ganta's mind. _**'You already got little Shiro on your tail and now you're working on getting another chick. Sniff, I'm so proud of you.'**_

'_IT IS NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL!'_

Azami seemed to ignore, or at least didn't notice, Ganta's inner argument as she went on to explain how the Cast Point system worked. Ganta listened with rapt attention since he knew that he would need to know the basics of Deadman Wonderland if he at least wanted to make his stay here a little more bearable. Apparently if someone had Cast Points then they could spend it on anything that they wanted, from meals to reduced prison sentences, all could be purchased with enough Cast Points. It seemed like a pretty crazy idea to Ganta but before he could make a comment to Azami on his thought's something drew their attention away from their conversation.

**!Crash!**

A few tables down the row, a gang of prisoners were picking on an old man and no one seemed to be eager to help him out. After looking at the rowdy prisoner's Ganta actually recognized three of them; Punk, Fatty, and Shorty. Of course they were all bandaged up from what happened to them yesterday but they seemed to be in semi-good help as they were sucking up to the other prisoner of the group.

'_**Is that man wearing a cape?' **_Ragnarok asked in the most dead-pan tone of voice that Ganta had ever heard him use.

Ragnarok's observation seemed to be correct as the man who was beating up the old man was actually wearing a regal cape as though he was king of some kind. From the whispered conversations around him this man appeared to be called Kōzuji and was the worst trouble maker of this section of Deadman Wonderland.

Not wanting to get into another confrontation on his second day here, Ganta tried to sneak away from the crowd so that he could enjoy his sandwich in peace, but it seemed as if fate had it out for him. One of the other prisoners around him accidently knocked the serving tray from his hand and sent the sandwich flying forward. Hunger had overridden any rational thought as, Ganta lunged out of the crowd and caught his wayward sandwich. Any sense of victory that Ganta may have felt was quickly replaced when he realized that everyone's attention was now on him.

"B-boss, that's the kid who fought us yesterday." A nasally voice said as Ganta tried to make himself smaller in an attempt to draw attention away from himself. Ganta reluctantly turned around and found himself staring at the group of prisoners who he specifically did not want to be noticed by. Standing next to that Kōzuji guy was Punk with his finger pointed towards him, though it did shake from barely concealed fear. The bandage on his nose and the nasally voice indicated that his nose was still broken which brought a bit of savage happiness to Ganta.

Ganta really tried to disappear at that point but alas he did not disappear from Kōzuji's sight as he walked up right to him. Oddly enough his expression seemed rather joyfully instead of the angry filled one that Ganta expected. "You must be new here. My name is Kōzuji, nice to meet ya." Then without warning the man threw a straight punch right across Ganta's jaw.

**!CRACK!**

"AHHH SHIT MY HAND!" Kōzuji screamed as he gripped his now bruised knuckles. The crowd around the two was thoroughly confused by what they just witnessed. Kōzuji, the toughest prisoner in their block just punched a kid across the jaw and was now crying like a baby while the kid was perfectly fine.

"Boss are you okay?" The three stooges tried to help their boss stand while Ganta quietly sneaked away from the scene while munching on his sandwich.

He never did notice the pair of amber yellow eyes that looked at him with no small bit of curiosity.

XXXXXXXXXXX

(Flashback END!)

After that incident Ganta had decided to go to the medical center to get a physical checkup from the doctor there. After all, he needed to be in top shape if he ever wanted to prove his innocence. After receiving a clean bill of health, except weighing an unusual amount for a boy of his size, Ganta was then told to eat his candy. Being utterly new to Deadman Wonderland, and still having not read the instruction manual, Ganta had no idea what the doctor was talking about.

As a twist of fate the other prisoner who had run into Ganta with the cart was also in the medical ward. Apparently while the wound that the warden Makina dealt him, while looking terrible, was not fatal and he had been confined to bed rest for a bit while his wound healed. They struck up a conversation for a bit before Shiro had appeared from the ceiling like a white rabbit from a magician's hat. She had come to ask Ganta if he wanted to join her in the upcoming dog race since she thought it would be a fun event to do with her friend. The first prize of the race was 100,000 Cast Points while the booby prize was sweet jam bread, oddly enough it seemed as if Shiro wanted the bread more than the Cast Points. Ganta had decided to join Shiro since it sounded like fun and a potential way to earn some Cast Points. That assumption was his first mistake.

While he was waiting in a locker room for the event to start Ganta had finally decided to thumb through the manual that they gave him during the orientation since he finally had a bit of free time. What he found shocked him to no end. As it turned out, the collar around his neck was constantly pumping a poisonous substance into his system that would kill him if he didn't take the antidote that was in the form of a candy. Unfortunately it seemed that they had "forgotten" to supply him with his cure so if he didn't buy some soon then he would die a horrible death.

Another slap in the face to Ganta by fate was the fact that Kōzuji had also entered the race to win the Cast Points. Before the King of the monkeys had entered the locker room Ganta had rushed to the bathroom, feeling ill with thoughts of his immediate death. While Ganta was out of the room, mentally preparing himself –aka trying not to throw up from fear- Kōzuji had entered the room and basically ordered everyone to lose and broke Azami's arm as an example for those who had thoughts about opposing him. His attention was soon drawn to Ganta when he came back after finishing preparing himself. Apparently Kōzuji was still angry about the cafeteria incident and decided to get back at Ganta during the race.

Thankfully with a combination of Ragnarok's quick advice and Shiro's interventions, Ganta came out of the race without a scratch. On the flip side Ganta didn't win the race since he chose to save Shiro's life instead of winning, but he hasn't regretted his decision since.

Unfortunately with no candy or Cast Points, Ganta's death was assured which brought us back to the third day, with Ganta writing out his will.

'_Dear Mr. Katsurui, even if you don't believe me I did not kill your daughter…'_

'_**You do know that the instant that Katsurui sees that you wrote him a letter he'll throw it in the fire right? He did try to strangle you with his bare hands after all.'**_

Ganta sighed at Ragnarok's- correct- statement and crumbled up the sheet of paper that he was working on and threw it into the pile with all the others. Just as Ganta was about to start writing on the next page in his notebook, the door to his cell opened up. Ganta looked up from his notepad and saw the same grey haired prisoner that he had run into for the past few days enter his cell.

"Huh, you're in the same cell as me?" The grey haired boy said as he looked at Ganta with no small amount of surprise.

"Wait, we met in the clinic and the hallway right?" Asked Ganta as his memory wasn't the best when it came to names and faces.

"Right. Dang who would've thought that we be in the same room." The grey haired kid said with a small laugh.

"Ohh." Ganta muttered in realization, "Is that why I had this cell to myself for the last few days? My cellmate was in the infirmary?"

"That's right. By the way, my name is Yō Takami." Yō greeted as he extended his hand towards Ganta. "It's nice to meet you."

Ganta was hesitant to take Yō's hand and it clear to all who could see him. "Sorry, my name is Ganta Igarashi and…" Here Ganta's voice began to waver as he turned his attention to the ground "I-I'm going to be executed today. I don't have any money to buy any candy…"

"Actually that's part of the reason why I wanted to talk to you." Yō said, snapping Ganta out of his depressed thoughts. He then began to rummage through his pockets as though he was looking for something. "You lost your candy when I ran into you with the cart so it was my fault. I felt so bad that I managed to scrape enough CP together to get you this."

With that Yō presented Ganta a small piece of candy wrapped in a stripped wrapper. "Here take this candy."

Ganta hesitantly reached out for the candy but was almost too afraid to touch it, as though it would disappear if he did. Yō noticed Ganta's hesitation and placed the piece of candy in Ganta's hand. Ganta stared down at the antidote candy in his hand as if he was unsure that it was really there.

"I-is t-this really okay?" Ganta stammered out in shock and an undertone of happiness.

"Sure it is" Yō said with a disarming smile.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'LL OWE YOU FOREVER AFTER THIS!"

Ganta then enthusiastically opened took the candy out of the wrapper, never noticing the evil smirk on Yō's face. When Ganta swallowed the candy he noticed something about what he had just eaten, it tasted horrible

"BLEAH!"

'_**BLEAH!'**_

"It's so bitter!" Yelped Ganta as he tried to spit the taste from his mouth.

'_**They call that piece of crap candy!? Gant… that does NOT count as the candy that you owe me!'**_

"Hey there, I know that it's bad but it's not that bad." Yō said to Ganta, who was still attempting to clean the taste from his mouth. "Hey why don't we get something sweet to get rid of the taste?"

Ganta could only nod his head at the idea of getting rid of the bitter taste out of his mouth and followed Yō out of the cell.

XXXXXXXXXX

(-Hidden Passageway of Deadman Wonderland-)

The Wretched Egg stalked down one of the many hidden hallways of Deadman Wonderland with the usual cruel smirk on her lips. It seemed as if the gods were finally showing her some favor since this was the second time in less than a month that she had been reawakened. Apparently Tamaki didn't learn from his last mistake and once again during an inspection of the Mother Goose system someone had accidently turned off one of the generators.

So with extreme relish she broke free of her restraints and slaughtered the attendants in the control room with minimal trouble. Once everyone was dead Shiro found her Aceman costume and was on her way out of the inner levels of the facility so she could find Ganta. Honestly, Shiro wondered where Tamaki finds the shmucks to be a part of her containment team; after all this had to be like the third, no fourth team that she had killed so far and he always seemed to have another one on standby.

She was getting off topic now. So Shiro shook her head and returned on her trek through the darkened passageway. As she walked down the darkened passageway Shiro had looked over the memories of her alter ego and was pleased with what she found. Her plan had worked out perfectly for not only was Ganta in Deadman Wonderland with her but her alter ego even initiated the first contact with him.

Granted while he didn't seem to remember them or what they did when they were kids it wasn't all bad. Shiro did notice that at certain times it would seem as if key events would trigger the return of his memories since he seemed to recognize the mark that her alter ego had placed on her palm. Ganta's bad memory would work out in her favor since she didn't want him to remember the events that happened on that day ten years ago just quite yet.

Of course that wasn't the only thing that interested her; at certain times when Ganta was speaking with her alter ego he would stare off into the distance and mumble to himself occasionally. To a normal person this behavior would only be considered odd…but to one such as her, it became much more interesting. The signs of insanity were there and with the mystery of the black crystal in his chest the allure that Ganta seemed to have over her only grew more and more.

Now that she had a bit of her freedom again Shiro decided to play one of her favorite games with Ganta to see how far he has progressed. Unfortunately her alter ego had been knocked out before she could catch a glimpse of Ganta's power so she had no memories of how he had saved her. That would soon change as she would provoke Ganta's powers by giving him just a little push in the right direction. Now dressed in her Aceman outfit, she was off to play Aceman Vs. The Villain with Ganta and see how strong he really was.

"Kishi, Ganta-kun let's see if you still remember this game."

XXXXXXXXXXX

(-Garden Area of Deadman Wonderland-)

Ganta and Yō were walking through one of the many gardens of Deadman Wonderland looking for the ice cream bar that was supposed to be set up around there. So far they had no luck but Yō seemed to be optimistic about finding it and Ganta was really looking forward to getting something to get the taste of the antidote candy out of his mouth. As they continued to look for the elusive stand, Ganta decided to ask Yō a question that had been bugging him for a while now.

"Hey Yō, have you seen Shiro around lately?"

"Sorry Ganta I haven't seen Shiro around since the Dog Race." Yō said in an apologetic tone.

"Dammit Shiro." Ganta mumbled underneath his breath, "She was pretty banged up after the race and she only got the basic first aid afterwards. I'm really starting to worry about her"

Yō's face was inquisitive as he watched Ganta work himself up into a fit over his worry for Shiro, "You must really care for your friends."

"It's not that…" Ganta began to say before Yō looked off to the side.

"Ahh, there's the ice cream stand." Yō said as he pointed towards a bright pink stand that had another prisoner by the cash register. "Is there anything that you want?"

Ganta was about to ask for a scoop of vanilla when the familiar voice of Ragnarok spoke up.

'_**Ganta if you get three scoops of chunky monkey then I'll subtract thirty pieces of candy from the amount that you owe me.'**_

The thought of reducing the debt that he owed Ragnarok was too good to pass up so he told Yō what he wanted and watched him walk off to get the ice cream. Ganta then found himself a comfortable enough bench to sit on and waited for the return of his newest friend.

As he waited for Yō to return Ganta finally noticed the hushed conversations of the other inmates as they tried to, and failed, discreetly looked at him. Oddly enough their whispered conversations were just loud enough for him to hear.

"Hey isn't that the newest death row inmate? The one that killed off his entire class?" One prisoner with a Hawaiian shirt whispered to his friend as he pointed towards Ganta.

"SHH! Don't let him hear you. I heard that he took down Kōzuji like it was nothing. Once that kid got through with him, Kōzuji was on the floor screaming in pain."

"No, that kid is a skinny as a stick. How could he possibly take down Kōzuji?" The first prisoner asked in disbelief.

"It's true." Another man said as he joined in on the conversation. "Did you see that Dog Race yesterday, the massacre? That kid was one of the two people that came out of that thing alive and he came out with barely a scratch on him. The kid dodged the all of the traps like he was fricken Spider-man."

Ganta tried to ignore the conversation of the other prisoners but found himself unable to. Listening to them talk about him like he was some kind of inhuman monster was pretty depressing, especially since he somewhat agreed with them. He knew that he wasn't a normal human anymore, not with his abilities. Ever since he first heard Ragnarok's voice in that hospital room everything about him seemed to change and Ganta wasn't sure if it was for the better.

Before he could contemplate his own humanity some more, a triple scoop cone of chunky monkey was held in front of him. Looking up Ganta could see that Yō had returned with the ice cream and was looking at him expectantly for him to take it. Ganta graciously accepted the ice cream cone and began to eat it, much to Ragnarok's pleasure, as Yō sat down next to him and began doing the same thing.

As they ate their ice cream in silence Ganta couldn't help but remember the summers of the past when Yamakatsu, Mimi, and he would all go to the local store to pick up some ice cream for the hot summer days. Ganta remembered the happiness that he felt in those days, the nights by the river playing with fireworks, the sight of Mimi in a kimono during the festivals and even the times that he and Yamakatsu had to run away from a group of angry hornets when they knocked down the hornets' nest with an errant soccer ball. But then all of his memories lead to the same point, the time that his life changed for the worse. All of his memories lead to that day in the classroom with his friend's severed heads in the grasp of the Red Man.

"Hey Ganta, are you okay?"

Yō's voice brought Ganta out of his memories as he belatedly realized that he had been crying.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." Ganta said as he wiped away the tears from his eyes. "I just…"

**_'It's near…'_**

Ganta paled and hunched over a bit as Ragnarok's voice boomed from within his head. He then hastily stood up and grasped his chest as a familiar burning sensation appeared along with a purple light. Ganta ignored Yō for a moment as his head furiously whipped from side to side. He was searching for something that he both dreaded and needed to see again.

_'No he can't be here!'_ Ganta thought as he scanned the surrounding area, looking for the sight of that blood drenched creature.

"Ganta what are you doing?" Yō worriedly asked at his friends odd behavior.

Ganta ignored Yō's question as his searching became more and more frantic. The memories of that man came flooding back as the burning in his chest grew hotter and hotter.

_'Where is he?! Where is the Red Man?'_

**_'The Egg is here.'_**

**!DONG. DONG. DONG.!**

As the clock struck three times, time seemed to slow down once again. Ganta then raised his head towards the face of the clock tower and found his breath stuck in his throat. There, standing upon the ledge of the clock tower, in all of his bloody glory, was the Red Man. The two stared down each other for a few seconds before that damn familiar smirk appeared on the man's face.

"Why…why is he in Deadman Wonderland?" Ganta wondered aloud as shock and fear began to infect his mind.

The Red Man then stepped off the ledge and let himself fall as gravity took ahold of him. As he fell, the familiar hexagonal plates appeared around him, slowing his fall until he hovered in mid-air. The Red Man stared directly at Ganta before he made a small gesture towards the three prisoners that were talking earlier with his hand.

The lines of hexagons flew from the Red Man and began to spin to spin at speeds which caused the very air to twist into a deadly hurricane. The prisoners stood no chance as the tornado plowed into the area in front of them. The power of the wind was so powerful that anyone close to it was killed instantly as was the case of the three inmates as they were torn to shreds. Flesh was torn and blood was split but none of that mattered to Ganta as he continued staring at the Red Man.

As Yō tried to shield his eyes from the winds, Ganta was paralyzed by the site in front of him. Large pieces of debris began to leave small cuts on Ganta's form but he felt none of them. The sight of the Red Man's attack brought back the memories of his class's murder to the fore front of Ganta's fragile mind. Ganta then snapped back into reality as he saw pieces of ice cream stand from earlier fly towards Yō and him. Ganta brought his arms up to protect himself but he could still feel the pieces leave large cuts in his skin.

"Argh!"

The sound of Yō's pained yell from his side brought Ganta back to reality as he tried to see through the whipping wind. He looked to his side and saw that Yō was on the ground and not moving at all and was bleeding from a small wound on his head. Ganta realized that his newest friend was injured by the same person who killed off his old friends and something snapped inside of him. His fear turned to anger as his hatred for the being that stood in front of bubbled to the surface. His grey eyes lost most of their color and became a dull almost white while his fingers began to twitch in random motions. How dare this man try to take away his friends again, he would not allow it.

'_I HATE HIM SO MUCH!' _As Ganta's anger grew, the power of his negative emotions caused the crystal in his chest to grow brighter and brighter.

'_I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM!' _As the glowing on his chest grew, torrents of black blood flew from his wounds and into the air around him. Ganta then brought his hands together with his palms pointing towards the Red Man.

"I'm…" Ganta began to say as a trio of large eye plates appeared behind him. Each pate began to move and slither as though they belonged to a living being. The Red Man finally touched down on the ground but made no move to stop Ganta.

"Going to…" The blood then began to collect in Ganta's outstretched palms in an impossible amount, actually forming into a ball of blood the size of a cannon ball.

"KILL YOU, BASTARD!" The ball in Ganta's hand launched itself with a speed of a real cannon ball towards the Red Man. The Red Man made no motion to escape but raised one of his hands so that it was in the path of the bloody cannon ball.

Ganta's attack collided with the outstretched hand and the force of the unstoppable force hitting the unmovable object caused a cloud of dust to blanket the area where the Red Man was standing. Ganta waited with baited breath for the cloud to dissipate so that he could see if he had hurt the man who was the cause of all of his sorrow and anger.

Then a pulse of wind, originating from where the Red Man once stood, pushed the dust and debris away, allowing Ganta to see the Red Man. And what he saw caused him to pale even further. The Red Man was standing in the exact same spot as before with his arm still raised looking no worse for wear at Ganta's attempt to end his life. The grin on his face was even wider as though he saw something that he truly wanted to see. The only indication that the Red Man had been affected by Ganta's attack at all was the single pinky finger on his raised hand was bent backwards, obviously broken

The Red Man seemed to ignore the broken finger and looked straight at Ganta with that demented smile on his face. Then with a voice like the cold wind of fall blowing through a graveyard, the Red Man spoke.

"Yah… Good job Woodpecker."

The man then kicked off the ground and flew into the air, seemingly finished with what he wanted to do. He then landed on the roof of the clock tower and began to walk away from Ganta.

"Hey…" Ganta began as he ran towards the building. "Don't you run away you bastard!"

'_**That's enough for now Ganta.' **_Ragnarok's voice was accompanied by a wave of dizziness that made Ganta stumble.

'_Ragnarok…what…?' _Ganta drunkenly thought as the edges of his vision began to grow dark.

'_**You aren't use to your power yet and I have yet to gain my full strength so this is the consequence of using them both at the same time. For now your revenge must go unsatisfied, so sleep for now and dream of death and destruction.'**_

"Not…again…Mimi…Yamakatsu… Shiro." The last thing that Ganta saw before falling into the blissful void of unconscious was the back of the Red Man as he walked away.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kishi."

Shiro couldn't help but laugh as she looked down at her already healing finger. To think that weak little Ganta would be able to hurt her when he just recently awakened his power. Granted that she wasn't even trying to kill him, if she was then he'd be a smear on the ground, but to have come so far in such a short amount of time was still amazing.

Ganta's show of power had proven her initial thoughts to be true. Ganta was something different then all of those pale imitations in G-ward, he could possibly stand above them all if he embraced the madness inside of him. Perhaps… he could stand as an equal besides her as a fellow god and together they'll burn the world to the ground. The images of the world alight with the fires of destruction played through her mind even as her Lullaby began to fill the air.

"Kishi, I'll be waiting for you. My black blooded woodpecker."

* * *

**And that's the revised chapter two. Please leave a review if you like the story and I do accept constructive criticism. **


	3. Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole

**A/N; Hey everyone this is Sharkteeth with the newest chapter of Black Blood Woodpecker. Before we kick this off I want to answer some of the question that I have been receiving in the reviews.**

**From Demonata 1-04:** so is Ganta going to become like corona is now totally insane also what about chibi Ragnarok full sized would take all the blood in Ganta's body but the smaller version could work?

**Answer**: Ganta will become more like Crona as time goes on but it will not be a complete personality morph. Obviously since they were raised in two totally opposite ways they won't have an exact personality but I will incorporate a few personality quirks of Crona's into Ganta, and as for the madness…well you'll just have to find out for yourself. Ragnarok will be full sized in this fic and allow me to explain why. In Soul Eater all of Crona's attacks involve having his blood out of his body but not once has he ever suffered from blood loss. My theory is that the Black Blood offers some regenerative abilities which allows Crona to refill his blood supply. Don't worry since Ganta just unlocked his Black Blood the regeneration won't kick in until later so at the very least he won't have infinite blood until Ragnarok fully appears.

**From bloodyemperor: **i'm with Ragnarok Ganta already got Shiro and now he's getting another girl...sniff sniff I'M SO PROUD! Ganta might get a small harem…

**Answer: **No harem, small or otherwise, for three reasons. One I don't believe I could write a good harem story with my level of writing experience. Two, I am a firm believer in the ShiroxGanta pairing, those two are meant for each other and when the manga finally restarts again I hope that they will be together. And three, the Wretched Egg will slaughter any girl who so much as winks at Ganta.

**That's it for this chapter's question but fell free to leave your questions in the reviews and I'll address them if I can.**

"Welcome to Deadman Wonderland./**Where everyone is a little mad."** People/Ragnarok talking

'_The cake is a lie__**/ Eat the muffins instead' **_People/ Ragnarok thinking

"The insanity is all consuming." Techniques being used

Disclaimer: I do not own Deadman Wonderland or Soul Eater in anyway shape or form.

**Warning: The following fic has scenes of violence and graphic language so if you read this then you must understand that and are reading this for the violence and language.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole…

Within the confines of Deadman Wonderland there was a room; a room that did not look like it belonged in such a dangerous and deranged place such as DW. The room was brightly colored and was filled to the brim with all kinds of toys and colorful objects; all in all it looked like a child's dream room. This room belonged to no child though, it belonged to one of the most insane and twisted men on the planet; Tamaki Tsunenaga, the Promoter Deadman Wonderland.

Tamaki was currently sitting in his nice leather chair behind his desk as he fiddled around with a ring puzzle. The promoter of Deadman Wonderland had a fox like appearance and was fairly skinny with a lanky build. His narrow face seemed to be stuck in a perpetual smirk and his eyes were always squinting. His hair, which went past his neck, was dark grey and combed backwards, although one strand of his hair was standing upwards.

He was wearing a grey suit with a white, formal shirt, accompanied by a blue tie. To complete his look he had a pair of square half-rimmed glasses resting on his nose.

As he worked away at the puzzle Tamaki's mind was on other matters that were infinitely more interesting to him. One of these matters was the mystery of his newest prisoner, Ganta Igarashi, which was vexing even his devious mind. About a month ago a technical malfunction allowed the Wretched Egg to free itself from its confines within the prison and escape into the outside world. Worried that his Demon Boss would be lost forever Tamaki immediately alerted his contacts in the outside world to be on the alert for any sign of the Wretched Egg; and knowing it's penchant for destruction on a grand scale Tamaki was sure that it wouldn't be long before they found out where it was.

But then a full day passed with no sighting of that monstrous creature, followed by another and another until his contacts finally found it after it had massacred an entire classroom of high school students. That was Tamaki's first clue that something was about to change. While the killing of so many young and promising students was "truly a tragedy" (note the sarcasm) it seemed to be too small of a scale for something like the Wretched Egg.

That's when he heard a veeerrryyy interesting piece of news.

When his contacts in the outside world told Tamaki of a young man whose life was spared by the Wretched Egg he had become ecstatic. He dared hoped that this new player would somehow provide him with the key that was needed to finally defeat the final boss of his game, the Wretched Egg itself. Unfortunately, when Tamaki had first seen Ganta Igarashi his expectations proved to be an overestimation. Tamaki's first impression of the boy was that he was a weak little punk that had probably been spared on some sort of passing whim of the Egg.

'_But beggars can't be choosers I suppose.' _Tamaki thought as he unsuccessfully tried to pry apart the two rings once again.

It's true, while he might have not seen much potential in the new character Tamaki did suppose that having another prisoner around wouldn't hurt anything. So with a little bit of effort Tamaki forged some convincing evidence and hired a look-alike to pose for a "confession" which he then leaked onto the internet. After that, the trial had gone on without a hitch and young Ganta was sentenced to his Wonderland.

…

Well it wasn't his yet, BUT soon it would be. If only that old man would kick the bucket faster.

Tamaki paused in his attempts to untangle the rings when realized that he once again lost his trail of thought. _'Where was I? Oh yes Woodpecker.'_

After Ganta's imprisonment Tamaki deiced to let Makina do whatever she wanted with young Ganta since he would contribute nothing to his plans. Though as a passing sense of caution Tamaki decided to have one of his more "model" inmates' watch over Ganta, just in case something interesting happened. After that though, he couldn't care less what happened to the young man and fully expected him to be dead by sundown thanks to Makina's little "revenge" accident that she liked to arrange for the families of victims.

Only…Ganta wasn't killed.

Somehow he survived a scenario that was supposed to leave no survivors. That was when his interest in Ganta was rekindled anew. Maybe the Wretched Egg had blessed the young man with some sort of power that allowed him to survive; a special Branch of Sin perhaps? Nothing was concrete yet, so Ganta Igarashi remained a mystery. The phenomena that was known as Ganta needed to be tested some more before any final decisions were to be made.

His next opportunity presented itself when he had learned that Ganta would be entering the Dog Race. Once he had known that, Tamaki instantly took control of the race and set it to the highest danger setting and watched to see how well Ganta would fare.

He was not disappointed.

As the race progressed Tamaki instantly noted Ganta's unusual ability to dodge any kind of danger that came at him. Granted he had help from that strange girl that was with him but there were times that Ganta displayed an amazing knowledge on how to dodge any of the traps that were in his way. After the race Tamaki knew that he had underestimated the worth of his newest pawn and decided to test him even further when the unexpected had happened.

The Wretched Egg had escaped from its confines.

When Tamaki had been informed of this he had fully expected there to be a colossal blood bath just around the corner. But then something had happened that was well beyond his calculations. The Wretched Egg, instead of destroying everything in its path, had gone straight to Ganta Igarashi and only started to kill when it was in his presence. Better yet, the young boy had survived a second encounter with the Egg. That was the sign that he had hoped for; surviving one encounter with the Egg was a miracle, but surviving two means that the Egg had let him live for some reason.

The ideas and possibilities that flew through Tamaki's head would've made a normal person go insane but to him it just caused the perpetual smile on his face to grow wider. Thankfully while the power outage may have knocked the security cameras it didn't knock out the Branch of Sin Detector that was in the area. After that naughty little Crow tried to make a break for it a while back, Tamaki decided that it would best to install some sensors around the prison that would track the activation and location of anyone who was using a Branch of Sin. According to the readings that Tamaki got when the systems came back online he could say that without a doubt Ganta was a Deadman.

'_Could that be it? Does Ganta possess some special Branch of Sin that can turn back the Wretched Egg? Perhaps it's time that I 'invite' Ganta to the real Deadman Wonderland.' _Tamaki thought as he placed the ring puzzle down and reached for his intercom. Just before he could activate it though, an announcement began to play throughout the prison.

"**Attention all prisoners, a lockdown is now in effect. Leaving your current position is now prohibited. Please return to your cells. However… prisoner 5580 is to report to the Security Center immediately…"**

"Ohh dear…" Tamaki said as he leaned back in his chair. "That Makina… what ever shall I do? If Ganta-kun gets hurt, then so many of my plans will be ruined."

But it seemed that fate favored the fox today as his door opened up to reveal his mole that he had assigned to watch over Ganta, Yō Takami.

'_Perfect…'_

"Ahh, Yō Takami-kun you're just in time."

Yō entered the room and stood in front of Tamaki's desk. Yō's face, unlike the normal jovial one that he showed around Ganta, was pale and had a slight angry expression on his face.

"What the hell was that Tamaki?" Yō said with a hint of anger and disbelief in his voice. "All you said was to watch out for that kid, you never told me that he was a fricken monster. And that other one…" As he remembered that man in the red suit Yō's entire body shuddered. "Just what the hell is up with those two?"

Tamaki leaned back in his chair for a bit. "That one in red has been taken care of for now, but as for Ganta-kun…" Here Tamaki's eyes opened slightly allowing Yō to see his dark grey eyes. Yō couldn't help but take a step back as he looked into Tamaki's eyes and saw the madness that was bubbling just beneath the surface of his calm persona

"Ganta-kun is an invitee to the real Deadman Wonderland. His potential value has gone up recently so I need you to look after him for now. Besides…" Tamaki then proceeded to drop a large amount of CP cards right on his desk, in front of Yō. "It's much more profitable this way, wouldn't you agree?"

XXXXXXXXXX

(-Thirty Minutes Earlier, Medical Ward-)

'_**Ganta…Ganta….WAKE THE HELL UP!'**_

"WAHHHHHH!"

"UWAAAAHHH!"

Ganta and another voice screamed in shock and fright as he jolted up from the bed that he was resting on. Ganta panted slightly as his tired and muddled mind idly took notice that he was back in the hospital ward. Sitting next to his bed was Shiro, who was looking slightly startled with a half-eaten bar of chocolate in one hand and an opened bottle of soda in the other.

"I'm sorry Ganta…" Shiro said as she looked mildly guilty. "You were sleeping… so I ate your half of the candy."

'_**That bitch.' **_

Ganta ignored both Shiro and Ragnarok as he tried to determine if he really saw the Red Man again. "Was that a dream?"

Before Ganta could try and think further the curtain that surrounded his bed was yanked open as the doctor finally noticed that Ganta was awake.

"Be quiet you kids this is a medical ward you know." The old man yelled to Ganta as his aggravation with unruly patients got the better of him. "You should consider yourself lucky, all you had was a bit of anemia from blood loss. Granted that I didn't find any wounds on you..."

The doctor then left the two along as he walked away muttering something about not being paid enough. Ganta ignored the doctor's leave as the events that happened just a few hours ago slowly started to come back to him. _'Oh yeah…I was talking to Ragnarok, then…"_

An image of his black blood dancing in the air as floating eyes stared at him entered his mind. _'My blood started to move by itself, like some weird kind of power. It was almost like…'_

Then the image of the Red Man drenched in his classmates blood appeared in Ganta's mind as the rest of his foggy memories returned to him. Ganta then clutched his chest, right where the crystal that the Red Man had placed in him was hidden, as a startling realization gripped his mind.

"He's here… The Red Man is in Deadman Wonderland."

"Huh?" Shiro said as she tilted her head in confusion. "A Red Man?"

Ganta was about to explain to Shiro who the Red Man was when he caught a snippet of the conversation that the other prisoners in the hospital ward were having. Looking to his right, Ganta saw a pair of prisoners chatting to each other about what they just saw in the garden. One was lying down on the medical bed and had a black T-shirt on while the other sat up straight and was wearing a pair of glasses. Both were covered in layers of bandages but they seemed to be taking their near death experience very well.

"I'm telling you man, it wasn't a terrorist." The one lying on the bed said to his friend.

The one in glasses was dubious to his friend's certainty, "Okay if it wasn't a terrorist then what was up with that man in the restraints?"

"It was that thing that the others have been talking about. It's the ghost of a guy that was put away in the underground mental ward of the prison."

"HAHA! From what high school did you hear that croc from?" The man with glasses asked as he laughed at the man's story.

Another prisoner, just two beds away from the two, didn't seem to share the humor that his fellow inmate was feeling. This man was as pale as a sheet and had a thick layer of sweat running down his face. As he began to speak he would shudder every so often with fear.

"…It was definitely him. I've seen that man before."

Ganta's attention turned solely to the man as he continued talking to his friends who were now looking at him. "About 4 years ago I saw that guy come out of nowhere and start destroying a bunch of stuff. His blood flew around him like a scythe as he cut the guards like a hot knife through butter. I heard that they managed to trap him down in the G Sector somehow."

That was all that Ganta needed to hear. With a speed that was born from his need for revenge Ganta threw off the covers of his bed and ran out of the medical ward with Shiro right on his heels. As he ran through the halls of Deadman Wonderland Ragnarok's voice became ever louder in Ganta's mind.

'_**You do know that this is a terrible idea right? If you do find that "man" again he'll just squash you like a bug.'**_ Said Ragnarok in an "as a matter of fact" kind of tone.

'_Shut up Ragnarok! I'm not going to let him get away again. That Red Man…he killed all of my friends. He will pay!' _Ganta mentally yelled as he turned around another corner, all the while ignoring Shiro's pleas for him to slow down.

'_**Oh no, no you did not. You just sassed me you little wimp. And after all of the help that I gave you out of the kindness of my nonexistent heart. Fine, be that way! Let's just see how well you do without my help."**_

Ganta ignored Ragnarok's threat and continued running through the halls, his only concern was finding the man that made his life hell.

And then after that he would kill him, no matter what!

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-Thirty Minute Later-)

Ganta was completely and utter tally lost.

After thirty minutes of running through the halls of Deadman Wonderland Ganta was still no closer to finding G Sector then as he was thirty minutes ago. Then there was that announcement that was just broadcasted over the PA system. For some reason the warden, Makina if he remembered correctly, wanted to see him personally for some reason or another.

'_Why do I get the feeling that if I go see her now then they'll never find my body?' _Ganta thought as he tried to remember if he had already been down the hallway that he was running through.

Oddly enough Ragnarok had been silent to Ganta's thoughts. No wise crack, no insults…nothing at all. In fact for the past thirty minutes Ragnarok made no noise what so ever. While the silence would've comforted Ganta in any normal situation now it was slightly disconcerting since he had gotten use to the constant insults and presence of Ragnarok. He put his worries out of his mind though as the thought of getting revenge against the Red Man was too tempting to pass.

**!WHAM!**

Ganta and Shiro skidded to a halt as a massive reinforced steel wall closed off the hall way that they were running through.

"Shit…" Ganta muttered as he walked up to the wall trying to see if there was any way to make it move. "What the hell is going on here?"

"It looks like they entered the highest security threat level." A familiar voice said from behind Ganta and Shiro.

Turning around Ganta could see that Yō was leaning against the wall behind them. He seemed to have been looking for them for a while since he appeared to be out of breath and was sweating slightly. He then began to point in the direction behind him and began to talk.

"You better get to the warden's office before she personally comes looking for you. If you don't hurry then you'll get the same punishment that I got."

Ganta visibly hesitated for a bit before he answered his newest friend. "Sorry Yō…but I can't do that. I'm in a hurry."

"Yeah!" Shiro said happily as punched the air in front of her in excitement. "We're having a race!"

"A...race?" Yō slowly asked with no small amount of confusion at the girl's enthusiastic response.

"NO!" The sound of Ganta's loud proclamation brought Yō's and Shiro's attention back to him. Both teens saw that Ganta's body was very noticeably shaking in place, but it was not in fear his body trembled. It was anger and hatred that made his body quiver like a rattle snakes coil.

"You saw that Red Man..." Ganta began as he looked at Yō; his eyes were alight with the dark flames of hatred and, if you looked close enough, just a bit of madness. Even as Ganta continued to speak he unconsciously grasped his chest, right where the crystal that the Red Man merged with him was.

"He used that power of his and killed of all of my friends and everyone blamed me for it. I have to kill that bastard for what he did to me."

"…All?" Shiro said with a slight tone of hurt in her voice as she looked at Ganta.

"Wait…" Yō said as realization finally began to dawn on him. "Are you saying that a DW prisoner escaped and killed off your entire class? But that would mean… that you really are innocent."

"Yeah…" The fires of hatred receded from Ganta's eyes and were replaced with a steely determination for his goal. "I heard that he's being kept in the G-Ward, so I have to go there…"

Yō's face morphed into one of confusion as he stared at Ganta. "G-ward? Ganta…there is no G-ward."

The determination that Ganta felt was abruptly taken away from him as his brain restarted from what Yō just said.

"Eh?"

Yō then walked over to the wall and pointed at the large poster that adorned it, "Here take a look at this, it's a basic layout of the prison."

Ganta walked up to the poster and closely examined it, feeling his previous bravado drop even further as he looked it over. The poster had six large hexagons surrounding and connecting to a central one. Each hexagon was labeled with a letter that ran from "A" to "F". The thing that really caught his attention though was that there was no "G" anywhere on the map.

"As you can see there are only six prison blocks in DW. They never made a G-Block."

"That can't be…" Ganta whispered as his eyes flew over the poster, trying to find the missing G-Block.

"Ganta you should really…" Yō began before he had been cut off by Shiro who had been quiet until now.

"Jii…"

Yō and Ganta turned around and saw that Shiro seemed to be thinking about something very hard. Her eyes were looking upwards into the air as though the answer was floating above her as she brought one her mitten covered fingers up near her mouth.

"If you mean that G place…then I know how to get there."

"Really Shiro?" Ganta exclaimed with re-enkindled excitement.

Shiro briefly glanced at Ganta with a look that was a mixture of both anger and sadness, like the look of a kicked puppy. "…but I'm not telling though."

"WHAT, WHY NOT!?" Ganta was so close to the Red Man and now the only thing that was keeping him away from his revenge was Shiro's weird attitude; he could not stand for that.

Shiro's cheeks puffed out a bit in an angry pout as she looked to the side, away from Ganta's face. "Cuz Ganta said…"

Ganta had enough of Shiro's strange attitude; doesn't she know how important this was to him? "Shiro why are you sulking? If you know how to get to the G-Block then you got to tell us."

"But…" Shiro angrily said before she was interrupted by the voice of Yō interrupted their argument.

"Guys be quiet…do you hear that?" Yō's voice was tense as he stared down the darkened hallway that they had come from.

Ganta broke off his argument with Shiro and stared out into the darkness at the end of the hallway. If he strained his ears enough he could pick up the sounds of what sounded like heavy machinery moving very fast.

'_What is that?"_

**!WHAM!**

A large grey blur slammed into the wall at the end of the hallway, sending up a large amount of dust and debris into the air. The three teens stared into the dust searching for whatever had crashed into the wall; they did not have to wait long. From within the cloud a pair of bright blue lights lit up as though they were the eyes of a large beast. When the dust finally began to settle Ganta could feel his heartbeat get faster at the sight before him.

"Is that a robot?"

Indeed, at the end of the hallway was a very large, very heavily armored robot. Its main body reassembled a large oil drum with a steel ring encircling around it. Attached to the bottom of the main body was a pair of piston like legs that were hooked up to a pair of tank treads that served as its 'feet'. Also jutting from the bottom of the main body was a long slender neck composed of hundreds of wires that all lead up to a cylindrical piece of equipment that seemed to be the robots head. Finally imbedded in the head was a pair of bright blue lights that seemed to be the metal monstrosity's eyes.

"Shit…" Ganta heard Yō say in fright. Turning to his gray haired friend, Ganta could see that Yō was sweating profusely as his eyes never left the robot that seemed to be examining the three of them. "This is not good, that's the DW riot robot, Necro Macro. If the warden sent that thing after you Ganta then she must not care very much for the condition that you're brought back in."

The robot, Necro, seemed to have grown tired of merely examining its prey and took action. With the speed and ferocity of a charging lion, Necro sped down the hall and towards Ganta and his friends. Ganta and Yō screamed in fright at the sight of three tons of metallic death heading straight for them. Ganta then whirled around to face Shiro so that he could try and get her to finally see reason.

"SHIRO! YOU GOTTA SHOW US HOW TO GET TO G-BLOCK NOW!"

"Oooohhhh…." The mental battle in Shiro's head was over in a second as the angry pout on her face was replaced with reluctant acceptance. "Fine, but only cauz I have to."

With that Shiro spun around on her left foot as her right food landed a roundhouse kick that would do Chuck Norris proud on an air grid. The grid, along with some of the concrete that was attached to it, flew into the air from the force of Shiro's kick.

"See," Shiro said in a 'matter in fact' tone of voice', obviously proud of her simple observation. "If you know where to push then a whole lot of places can be opened up."

Ganta and Yō were a little dumbfounded by the show of strength and could only nod dumbly as they stared at the new hole in the wall.

Necro was not unobservant of what had occurred though. It saw how the unidentified inmate had opened up an escape rout in the wall and it knew that it had to stop the prisoners from escaping. From a panel on the bottom of its body a large rectangular gun barrel appeared and pointed towards its targets. From within the barrel a blue light began to form growing brighter and brighter.

"Oh crap!" Ganta said as he saw the barrel of Necro's gun pointed towards them. "Quick, get into the hole."

Necro launched a bright blue ball of energy from its cannon towards Ganta and his friends. While there was no explosion a wall of fire erupted from where the energy bullet hit, blocking Necro's view of the three. Once the fire dissipated Necro could see that half of the steal blast door had been melted but there were no signs that the inmates had been caught in the blast.

The hunt continued on.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

(-Within the Service Tunnels-)

Ganta, Yō, and Shiro were all sprawled out in the tunnel panting heavily from their near death experience. The hole behind them was still molten hot so they were lucky that the tunnels were large enough for them to have landed far enough away from the entrance.

""What the hell are those guards thinking?" Yō managed to pant out, "That damn robot is trying to kill us."

Ganta finally managed to get his breath back and stood on his own two feet as he turned to address his friends. "Well at least we managed to give that thing the slip.

**!CRASH!**

Ganta spun around at the sound of the crash behind and found himself staring at the face of Necro Macro as it burst through the wall. Apparently walls were no obstacle to the machine as it just ran through two feet of reinforced concrete like it was wet tissue paper.

"RUN FOR IT!" Yō shouted as he sprinted in the opposite direction of the killer robot.

The three turned tail from Necro and ran down the tunnel as fast as they could with the speeding robot on their heels. Shiro lead the escape since she seemed to know where exactly where she was going. Weaving around corners and jumping over cables, the three teens valiantly tried to shake the Necro Macro but no matter what obstacle they but put between themselves and the robot it would just crush it beneath it's treads. Shiro then turned around another corner in the hallway as she beckoned Yō and Ganta to follow her.

'_Ragnarok...' _Ganta yelled desperately within his mind. _'I could really use your help here."_

Like before, Ragnarok remained silent to Ganta's pleas even though the severity of the situation would've normally made him shout warnings to Ganta. So distracted was Ganta with trying to get Ragnarok to help him, he never noticed the loose cable that was on the floor.

"Argh!" Ganta screamed as his foot caught the loose cable on the ground, making him fall to the ground. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Necro Macro was bearing down right on him like a predator charging a wounded prey.

Necro saw that its target was on the ground and knew that the chance to end this chase had come. With an extra burst of speed Necro rushed towards the downed Ganta with the intent to finish him off. But before the riot bot could reach the downed prisoner, a grey blur, which Ganta recognized as Yō, rushed past it and snatched something from Necro's neck. Necro immediately halted in place as sparks erupted from its neck, where one of its many wires was missing. One of its blue eye lenses dimmed to nothing as a noise like a dying motor came from its head.

Ganta quickly got up from the ground and stepped away from the paralyzed robot. He was wondering what just happened when Yō's voice spoke up from just to his left.

"Come on Ganta we got to get out of here while there's still time."

Ganta turned to follow Yō down the tunnel and asked him about what he just saw Yō do. "Yō, what did you just do?"

Yō turned slightly so he could look at Ganta and raised one of his hands. Clutched within the hand was a stray piece of cable that had been torn of Necro's neck.

"Sometimes bad habits can come in handy."

Ganta would've said something about Yō's odd comment but decided not to. The three then resumed their trek through the tunnel as they left the stunned robot behind. Ganta looked towards Shiro as she led them through the tunnel at a steady pace. She looked over her shoulder slightly and gave Ganta the evil eye before turning her head back with a huff.

'_I don't get it, why is she so mad at me?'_

Ganta once again received no answer from Ragnarok so he settled for running through the dark in silence, with only the sounds of footfalls and heavy breathing filling the darkened tunnel.

XXXXXXXXXX

(-G-Block Entrance-)

After thirty minutes of walking through tunnels and wading through sewage, Ganta, Yō, and Shiro finally reached the entrance to G-block. The room that they were currently in was massive, possibly even larger than the gym at Ganta's old school. Mountains of trash and scrap littered the floor of the room, probably the remains of old and discarded items that were thrown away by people in the higher levels. The door to G-Block was also huge, easily two stories in height, and resembled the door to a bank vault with an enormous 'G' printed on it.

Ganta and Yō stared at the door as if it was the entrance of hell while Shiro looked like the sight before her was nothing new to her.

'_This is it…'_ Ganta thought as he stared at the door. _'The Red Man is behind this door.' _

Ganta took one step towards the door when…

**!CRASH!**

Ganta leaped backwards as pieces of concrete rained down from the ceiling as a familiar robotic menace broke through the ceiling and landed in front of Ganta. Like the hound Cerberus guarding the gates of the Underworld, Necro Macro blocked the entrance of G-Block from Ganta, Yō, and Shiro. Before the three could make a move to escape from the robot, a pair of panels opened up on the top of Necro revealing two very large, very menacing looking rocket launchers.

"Shiro is there anywhere that we can run?" Yō quickly asked Shiro, the panic in his voice could easily be heard.

"No, there's nowhere left to run." Shiro replied as even she grasped the severity of the situation.

With that Necro launched a trio of rockets towards the three terrified friends with deadly speed and accuracy.

**!BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!**

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-Inside G-Block-)

Inside the G-Block of Deadman Wonderland a lone figure was in a room, lying on his bed while reading a book of some kind. The figure was calmly reading its book in the silence of its room when something disturbed it. A deep booming sound rang through his room as slight vibrations shook some dust from the ceiling and onto the page that the he was on.

"Hmm…" the figure hummed to himself as he looked up to the ceiling. "A mouse perhaps? Naw, I doubt it."

A large smile that showed off an incredible amount of bloodlust and insanity appeared on the figures face as he continued to talk to himself.

"Could it be the Woodpecker? So he was able to find the rabbit hole after all." The figure then hopped off his bed and began walking towards the door of his room. "Perhaps I should go say hello…"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-The Control Room for Deadman Wonderland-)

The control room for the normal blocks of Deadman Wonderland was in chaos at that moment as they had just lost the signals for not only the prisoners but also for Necro Macro. All of the technicians were running back and forth on the lower section of the room trying in vain to recapture the lost signals. Meanwhile standing at the highest counsel of the room was Makina, and she was not happy.

An angry sneer blemished her normally beautiful face as she barked out orders to her underlings. "What the hell is going on?! Why did we just lose the signals?"

One of the techies nervously looked up from the console that he was working at and started to explain the situation to his boss. "Sir! Apparently all three of the prisoners managed to find some way to block not only their transmitters but also that of Necro Macro's."

Makina was taken aback for only a brief moment before her anger returned in full force. She let loose a brief scream of rage before she slammed her fist onto her desk.

"If that's true then that means…there is somewhere in DW that is out of my jurisdiction."

The image of a laughing Tamaki briefly crossed her mind as her anger grew even hotter.

"That fox bastard…what the hell is he hiding?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-G-Block Entrance-)

Ganta, Shiro, and Yō were all panting heavily from the amount of exertion needed to dodge the missiles that the Necro Macro had fired at them. Unfortunately the blast from the missiles caused the trash around them to catch on fire and morph into a towering inferno. Walls of flame, dozens of feet in height, surrounded the three and the only way out of the fire and caustic smoke was blocked by a robot that was determined to kill them.

'_Dammit…' _Ganta morosely thought as he looked around at the flames and at Shiro and Yō. _'I was so close too and now we're all going to die.'_

"I'm sorry guys…" Ganta began as Necro started to charge another shot of its laser cannon. "I wanted so badly to get revenge on the person who killed my friends but… All I managed to do was drag you into this mess."

'_And I'm sorry that you have to die as well for my stupidity Ragnarok.' _Ganta silently thought to his unseen partner.

Yō looked slightly aggravated with Ganta's apology, since he knew long before that the situation at hand was all Ganta's fault. But Shiro…Shiro looked even angrier at Ganta. With speeds that left her little more than a blur, Shiro leapt up into the air and flew towards the robot.

With what appeared to be surprise on its blank face, if a robot could be surprised, Necro was sent to the ground as Shiro delivered a flying kick straight to Necro's head. Ganta and Yō were barely aware that Shiro had moved but now, seeing the small girl down a robot of that size with no effort, it was no surprised that they were stunned beyond the belief.

"Shiro!"

"I can't believe that she just kicked that robot."

Shiro then turned around to face Ganta and Yō with a look of extreme anger, with twitching tick mark and everything, and proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs. "GANTA YOU JERK!"

Ganta and Yō could only stand in shocked silence as Shiro unloaded all of her frustrations onto Ganta. "JERK, JERK, JERK! YOU SAY THAT I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS BUT I DO HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT. I'M FIGHTING FOR YOU! WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING THAT ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD? SURE I ATE ALL OF YOUR CANDY WITHOUT ASKING BUT…"

Ganta then finally noticed the tears of hurt and frustration that were collecting at the bottom of Shiro's red eyes. "AREN'T I YOUR FRIEND TOO?"

Ganta and Yō were stunned into silence as Shiro to yell and wave her arms about angrily. Eventually Yō spoke up with no small amount of confusion and wonder in his voice.

"Is that what she was angry about?"

'_I see…' _Ganta thought as he stared at Shiro, who was still in her frenzied state. _'Even though the Red Man killed all of my friends… Shiro, Yō, even Ragnarok, I've made new friends.'_

"…Sorry, Shiro." Ganta muttered softly, though Shiro couldn't hear him since she was still ranting about Ganta being a big meanie.

The happiness that Ganta's realization brought about quickly changed to horror when a huge metal claw grabbed Shiro and lifted her into the air. Necro slowly rose from its downed position and brought the white-haired girl up to its face, studying her like she was some kind of new creature that it had never seen before.

"Oh my kami!" Ganta yelled as he raced towards Necro Macro. "Shiro!"

Necro saw Ganta rushing towards it and fired off a warning shot with one of its rockets. The blast separated Ganta from Yō and sent Ganta flying face forward and land on the cold concrete ground. Ganta then propped himself onto his elbows as he looked towards the Necro Macro, who seemed to be examining Shiro even more.

'_Dammit! That thing is going to kill Shiro….I gotta do something but what?' _Ganta then remembered the power that he used against the Red Man. _'That's it!'_

Ganta then shot his hand forward towards the robot and tried to use his latent powers to save his friend from certain death.

Only…nothing happened.

'_Come on, why won't it work?' _Ganta tried focusing even harder but his power still would not obey his commands. Ganta then began to grow desperate as he saw a targeting laser from the robot's gun appear on Shiro's forehead. Though its movements were slower than before, probably due to the missing wire from its neck, as the area where it came from was sparking wildly, Ganta knew that the Necro would kill Shiro soon enough.

'_Please…Ragnarok I know that you're mad at me but I'm begging you…' _Ganta mentally screamed as he saw the laser cannon on Necro's underbelly begin to charge with a pale blue light.

'_Save Shiro!'_

'…_**Apologize.'**_

Ganta almost cried out in joy as he finally heard the voice of Ragnarok from within his head. _'Yes, I'm sorry but please help Shiro.'_

The glow from Necro's cannon continued to get brighter as Ganta frantically tried to get Ragnarok to help his friend. The lone fact that Ragnarok seemed to be talking to him again was a good start but he needed to save Shiro NOW!

'_**Not like that. You'll have to say you're sorry out loud and your candy debt is to be increased by a hundred pieces. Now repeat after me…'**_

Ganta committed the apology that Ragnarok wanted to memory even as the glow from Necro's cannon almost reached its zenith. Then with desperation in his voice, and no longer caring if his thought that he was crazy, Ganta started to yell at the top of his lungs.

"Please Ragnarok-sama, please save my pathetic skin with your awesomeness!"

'_**Perfect, now you might want to prepare yourself. This won't hurt a bit… it's gonna hurt alot.'**_

'_What are you talking abo_AAAGGGGGGHHHHH!" Ganta's mental comment was cut off as an agonizing pain in his shoulder caused him to scream.

Yō looked at Ganta with confusion as he yelled at someone who wasn't there to help them. Yō thought that Ganta might've finally cracked from the situation, but then Ganta started to scream in pain like someone was stabbing him with a hot, jagged knife.

Ganta then shakily got to his knees, all the while screaming, and tore off the sleeve on his right shoulder. What Yō saw next made him sick to his stomach. Ganta's shoulder seemed to…bulge outwards as though something was trying to escape from within Ganta's body. At that moment time seemed to freeze and the noises within the room drained away to almost nothing as Yō's gaze seemed to be locked onto the spectacle before him.

Then everything turned back to normal as a literal river of black blood burst from Ganta's shoulder and flew into the air. The end of the black blood stream encircled around Ganta a few times like a coiling snake before it all rushed towards the robot that still had Shiro clasped within its clutches. The end of the stream then began to twist and morph until it vaguely resembled a large five-fingered hand that was clenched into a fist.

!**BAM!**

The black blood fist impacted against the head of Necro Macro and left a large dent in it as the force of the blow sent the robot flying towards the vault door. Unfortunately the impact from the attack jarred Shiro loose from the robot's grasp and was now falling towards some of the more jagged pieces of trash that littered the ground.

"NO!" Ganta screamed as he saw Shiro falling towards what would no doubt be her death. Ganta then willed the bloody appendage to save his friend. The bloody fist instantly started to dive downwards and quickly caught up with Shiro in no time. The fingers of the fist then uncurled and gently grabbed the falling Shiro by the back of her bodysuit. Shiro had not made a single peep through her entire ordeal but that didn't mean that she was unaware of what was happening. In fact, she now looked at the bloody hand that was holding her with undisguised childish glee that left sparkles in her ruby red eyes.

The hand then flew back towards Ganta with Shiro in its grasp before it hovered a few feet above him.

'_**Heads up.'**_

The hand then unceremoniously dropped Shiro, who let out a happy sounding squeal, into the waiting arms of Ganta. The black blood then began to retreat back into Ganta's shoulder like a recoiling tape measure. The last of the blood entered Ganta's shoulder a few seconds later leaving nothing behind but a torn sleeve and a wide eyed gray-haired prisoner.

"What the hell was that?" Yō muttered to himself as his mind couldn't quite comprehend what he just saw. _'His blood…it just punched that robot and sent it flying. What the hell are you Ganta?'_

Shiro on the other hand was looking up at Ganta's face with sparkles in her eyes before she glomped Ganta, unknowingly pulling his face into her chest causing a fiery red blush to appear on his face. "Wow Ganta-kun that was so awesome! You have to show me how to do that!"

Ganta wasn't in the best position to answer Shiro as he was doing his very best not to have a nose bleed on Shiro's developed chest and Ragnarok's lewd suggestions didn't help him in any way.

'_**Come on Ganta, don't you puss out on me. Just reach around her and comp a feel or two. I'm sure she won't mind.'**_

'_I can't do that! Shiro's my friend and I wouldn't know how to deal with her thinking that I'm a pervert.'_

Ganta's thoughts and Shiro's ranting were cut off as a loud metallic groan filled the air. Shiro let go of Ganta's head as they all turned their attention to the door to G-Block. Necro Macro slowly pulled itself from the ground making the metal of its body grown in protest. Once it returned to its standing position Necro Macro got ready to charge forward but stopped when it noticed something floating in the air.

Surrounding Necro from all sides was a small trickle of red blood that seemed to be silently dancing in the air. Necro seemed too enchanted with the sight before it as it ignored its earlier prey. The small trickle then disappeared from its sight and its vision split in half down the middle and Necro Macro knew no more.

Ganta, Yō, and Shiro looked on in wonder as the Necro Macro and the solid steel door behind it were sliced to pieces by some sort of invisible blade. Though the falling pieces of debris kicked up a dust cloud Ganta could make out a darkened figure calmly walking through the chaos while twirling something on his finger. As the figure got closer Ganta could hear a male's voice humming a slow tune that seemed to echo throughout the cavernous room. As the dust began to settle Ganta could finally see who was walking towards them while humming his strange song.

The man was very tall, taller than anyone else in the room by a good three feet and had a slight tan. He had short black hair that was spiked up in the back and above his right eye were the letters DSMK tattooed in black ink. The man was wearing a black striped long coat that was open, showing off his muscular physique and had a pair of rings, one on each thumb. He also was wearing a pair of dark blue pants with a black belt and a pair of combat boots.

Once he drew closer though Ganta saw something that ignited his black blood with fury. On the man's left index finger was a long string of blood that seemed to coil around his finger as he twirled it around in the air.

"Bang…" The man said as he stopped a good dozen feet away from the three stunned teenagers. His light brown eyes then lit up with undisguised glee for the carnage that he just created as he began to speak again.

"Welcome to the true Wonderland Woodpecker."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-Trash Yard of Deadman Wonderland-)

Azami gave one final huff of exertion as she threw the last bag of trash into the trolley with her one good arm.

"And that's the last of it." Azami said as she wiped her forehead with her good arm.

Her other arm was in a sling since that under evolved monkey Kōzuji had broken it before the dog race her. Unfortunately with the loss of her main arm, her work ability had dropped considerably and her life had become even more difficult. She was already living on scraps and a broken arm only inhibited her ability to earn CP. Thankfully there did seem to be some sort of karmatic justice in the world since Kōzuji had died in the brutal dog race that he had unknowingly saved her from by making her unable to compete.

With that thought Azami began pushing her trolley full of trash to the disposal unit that was near the old vent. As she pushed the trolley across the yard Azami began to think of the young man she had met not two days ago, Ganta Igarashi.

'_Hmm, I wonder where he could've gotten off to.' _Azami thought as she passed by a few guards.

The teen was an enigma that didn't seem to fit in the system of Deadman Wonderland. When she first laid eyes on the kid in the lunch line she didn't give him much thought at all and he seemed off put by her. In fact, he actually shuddered for a bit when he first saw her for some reason. She would've let it at that but when she saw that he was actually going to be eating the basic nutrient block she decided to talk to the, obvious, newbie.

After learning that Ganta had no idea what he had got himself into she decided to show a bit of mercy and gave him her sandwich along with an explanation on how the prison worked. After talking to Ganta for a bit Azami decided that he wasn't a bad kid, especially considering the kind of place that Deadman Wonderland really was. After finishing her explanation though, Kōzuji decided that he needed to remind everyone that he was the top monkey on the hill by picking on someone who was older and weaker than him. His three stooges were with him of course but they looked worse for the wear with tapped up cuts and bruises littering their forms.

That was when she noticed that Ganta was sneaking away from the scene as stealthily as he could. Her first reaction was disappointment followed by a healthy amount of disgust at her perceived view of Ganta's cowardice. She had hoped that Ganta would've been different than all the other spineless prisoners in Deadman Wonderland but it seemed that she overestimated him. That was when things took a turn to the unexpected.

Ganta's tray had been knocker from his hands and the sandwich that she had given him was thrown towards Kōzuji and his goons. Ganta had then lunged towards the sandwich and drew the attention of the four troublemakers. Kōzuji then looked like they had seen death itself and cried to their boss about how Ganta had beaten them black and blue.

'_I'm not sure if I should've been impressed that Ganta took them on or laughing at the thought of three grown men losing to a fifteen year old.' _Azami eventually decided that the whole situation was funny as she finally made it to the disposal unit and started throwing bags of garbage into it. A little while later Azami was finally done with her work and started to walk back to the female dorms of the prison.

**!boom!**

A low almost rumbling sound escaped from the old vent near Azami causing her to pause mid-step. She turned toward the large turbine vent and stared at it for a while, waiting to hear the sound again. When the sound did not return she became somewhat confused.

"What the hell was that?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-Back in G-Block-)

Ganta, Yō, and Shiro all stared at the black-haired man before them with varying degrees of shock, from Ganta and Yō, and curiosity, from Shiro, as red blood continued to swirl around his finger. The man then brought his hands up in a come here motion and began to speak to the three, or more specifically to Ganta.

"Come on then Woodpecker; let's have a go at it. Will your answer be yes?" The blood lust returned to his eyes as a wave of unadulterated killing intent washed over the three teens. "Or will it be yes?"

Yō couldn't help but shake in fright as the man before them beckoned Ganta to fight him. What he just saw defied all sense of reason and went against everything that he knew. _'He just cut open that huge metal door with his bare hands…No not his hands, the cuts were to clean for that.'_

Yō then turned his attention to Ganta who seemed to be just as stunned as he was but without the fear. _'He's not in the same clothes as before but that power proves it….this is the Red Man.'_

Ganta meanwhile was looking at the tall man in stunned silence as his thoughts raced a mile a minute.

'_The Red Man…'_

'_**Sure, let's just go with that for now. So what's your marvelous plan now that the "Red Man" is in front of you?**_

Ragnarok's voice was quick drowned out in the sea of rage that flooded Ganta's mind. With a scream of anger and hatred Ganta picked up a nearby metal pole and charged at the smirking man with the intent to bash his brains in.

The tall man on the other hand showed no worry as Ganta drew closer, if anything he looked even more excited than he was before. The man then crossed his arms over each other and made a small gesture with his thumbs. From an unseen slot on the rings a small serrated knife popped out, though they were too small to be a threat so Ganta ignored them and continued his charge. The man then placed the knife-rings against his forearms and dragged them down, creating a large bloody gash on each arm.

Blood then began to fly out of the man's wounds and collect near his injuries.

"Branch of Sin: Crow Claw" 

In a motion that was too fast for Ganta to see, the pipe in his hand, and some of the debris behind him, was cut into tiny pieces. Ganta was stunned by the speed of his foe's attack but as the pieces of his makeshift weapon fell to the ground Ganta could finally see what the tall man had done. Sticking out of the man's arms was a pair of three foot scythe like blades that were as red as the blood that formed them. Stretching across the blades was a series of hexagons that seemed to be engraved on them.

Ganta was frozen in shock at what had just occurred but the sound of Ragnarok's voice brought him out of his stupor.

'_**That was your plan? Hit him with a pipe and hope that he's dead…that's it? Damn I knew that you were stupid but not this stupid.'**_

Ragnarok's insults reignited Ganta's preservation instincts, so he tried to take a step back from the man before him in an attempt to get away from him. But as he took his first step back a series of cuts opened up on Ganta's body, each one was delivered by invisible attack that the man had just done. They weren't that deep but it didn't stop the blood from flowing from them. Surprisingly enough the tall man instead of looking pleased with the damage that he caused Ganta he actually looked disappointed.

"Hey, now don't disappoint me." The man began as his blades dissolved back into their original liquid form. "You're the Woodpecker, right? The badass who killed off his entire class with his bare hands; that was you wasn't it?"

The man then pointed towards Ganta's wounds that were still bleeding. "Why are you holding back your Branch of Sin? You have plenty of blood outside of your body so what's the problem?"

That's was when the man finally took notice of Ganta's black blood dripping from the cuts that he left on him. The dim lighting of the room made it hard to see the blood's color at first but he eventually did see that Ganta's blood was ebony black instead of the normal red of blood. The man's face then took on a confused expression as he looked down at Ganta.

"What the hell is wrong with your blood kid? It's all black, you sick or something?"

Ganta ignored him though as images of the past times that he used his power came back to him. He didn't notice it at first but every time he used that power he was already bleeding in some way. So that meant that he could only when his blood was outside of his body.

'_**Geez it took you this long to put the two together, gupi? Since you finally figured out that use your power and kill this guy already so that you can get me the candy that you owe me.'**_

With the mental "encouragement" from Ragnarok, and the full knowledge of how to use his latent powers, the anger returned to Ganta's eyes. The man hadn't moved from his spot, as he was still trying to decipher the mystery of Ganta's black blood, but a grin formed on his lips as he saw Ganta's blood begin to fly into the air around.

"Finally I thought that you would never get serious." The man said as he reformed his blades on his arms.

Ganta then willed his blood to collect in his hand as the familiar eye plates formed a ring in front of the pooling blood. As the last of the blood collected in his hands Ganta threw the tall man a look of utter loathing.

"This is for all of my friends…RED MAN!"

With that proclamation Ganta fired the blood bullet from his hand and towards the grinning opponent in front of him. The man showed no fear at the approaching projectile, if anything the grin on his face grew wider. The man spun to the left to not only move out of the bullets path but also to add more momentum to his next attack.

With the added speed and momentum that his dodge afforded him the man swung one of his arm blades at the black blood projectile. The results of the action were the opposite of what he was expecting. When the edge of the blade met the bullet the bullet shattered the blade like it was made of glass. The bullet then continued traveling forward and hit the wall with enough force to leave a small crater in it.

The man didn't let the shock of what just happen stop him though as with a single leap he was sailing towards Ganta with his other blade posed to strike.

'_**Quick, put up your arm!'**_

Ganta did as he was told and put up his right arm to defend himself from the approaching attack. The man's expression only twitched slightly at the sight of the kid's odd idea for a defense before it returned to its normal battle crazy form. With speeds that were almost too fast for the eye to see, the man swung his blade at the still Ganta fully expecting him to cut the kid in half.

**!CLANG!**

Ganta couldn't help but wince a bit as the man's blood blade bit into his arm and stop partway in but the small amount of pain was worth it as the man seemed to be momentarily stunned. Seeing as how his attack failed spectacularly the tall man was stunned beyond belief. The kid's attack breaking his blade he could accept, but not this.

'_**Now it's my turn Pee-YOW!'**_

Ganta gave a brief yelp of pain when a large spike made of his black blood extended from his wounded arm tried to impale the man's stomach. The man leapt back to avoid the attack but he wasn't fast enough to dodge completely unharmed. The man was clutching the right side of his stomach as there was now a hole about the size of a quarter that was seeping blood at a slow rate. The man looked at his wound for a second with a blank face before he did something that surprised Ganta to no end. He began to laugh.

"KA KA KA KA KA KA Ka...!"

The man then stopped laughing and looked at Ganta with an amazed look on his face. "Damn kid that's an amazing Branch of Sin you got there. You've just banged your way into my heart. I got no idea about your friends or about any red man but you've got some serious spunk kid!"

Ganta was surprised greatly by the man's speech; the Red Man didn't know who the Red man was?

"Wait, does that mean that…you're not the Red Man?"

'_**I could've told you that.'**_

Ganta would've questioned Ragnarok's statement but the tall man's questioning voice brought his attention back to him.

"Kid what part of me looks red to you."

The thought of his revenge going unsatisfied was something he wanted to happen so he tried his last card to play. "But you have that weird power and you used it to kill all of my friends."

The man had enough of the accusations that were being thrown at him so with finality in his voice he began to speak. "Kid for the last time I ain't no red man. I'm the 'Crow' Senji Kyomasa. I'm not sure who you got me confused with but if you're talking about the 'Branch of Sin' then you can use it to. Granted yours is way different than what I've seen so far but it's a Branch of Sin no less."

'_Branch of Sin, is that what you are Ragnarok?' _Ganta thought as he tried to make sense of what Crow was saying.

'_**Not even close. In fact I feel like I should be insulted that you would think so little of me.'**_

Seeing the confused look on Ganta's face the man, Senji apparently, sighed a bit before he started to talk again, this time in a lecturing tone.

"Don't tell me you don't know anything about your own power. Geez you really are a rookie."

Senji then allowed some of the blood from his stomach wound to fly about in the air as he contend talking, "Blood users, or Deadmen, did you really think that you and this 'Red Man' were the only one's out there? Tell me, how many of us do you think are there in the center of Deadman Wonderland?"

The revelation from Senji made Ganta's mind freeze up. He already knew that he and the Red Man were posed special powers but the thought of more people with similar powers seemed unreal to him.

"No way…it can't be."

The man's tone became condescending as he heard the denial from Ganta, "I see then, in this world there are only two types of people who think that they are special; kids and foolish adults. I guess this makes you a kid. Now then…"

Senji's blood then reformed into his blades as he dashed towards Ganta. "Let's continue our game Woodpecker!"

Before Senji could get very far though a white and red blur hit his back making him stumble a bit. Senji started to twist his body to get whatever was on him off but before he could a pair of soft somethings hit his face. The sudden shock of the action caused him to lose his concentration, dissolving his blades once again, as he fell to the floor. As it turned out the blur was Shiro who was now on top of Senji with her chest in his face.

"Don't pick on Ganta." Shiro said in an angry voice, seemingly unaware of the position that she was in.

It took a second for Senji to realize the position that he was in but once he did his face paled considerably but also gained a fiery red blush. Senji then screamed as though he was covered in deadly spiders and tried to get away from Shiro.

"A...A woman!" Senji stammered out as he broke free of Shiro's grasp and scrambled away from her.

Shiro wasn't about to let Ganta's bully get away though so she started to wave her arms angrily as she continued her angry shouting. "Don't you pick on Ganta you bully!"

"F-Fine but please put this on first! Your bounciness is distracting me" Senji said as he held his coat out as if to shield himself from the angry Shiro.

Ganta and Yō couldn't help but sweat drop at the odd show before them.

'_What's this guy's problem?' _Yō thought as he watched this super powerful man be reduced to a quivering spineless jellyfish by Shiro's choice in clothing.

'_**That prude crow is complaining about getting his face shoved in a girl's chest? What a loser.'**_

While Ganta may not have completely with Ragnarok, his opinion of the man that he just fought did drop a few levels.

'_Hmm, I guess he's really not the Red Man…'_

**!PFFT!**

Ganta could feel a sharp prick in his shoulder, as though a bee had stung him, which was followed by a sudden wave of drowsiness that had him swaying in place. All of a sudden Ganta's eyelids felt as though they had heavy weights attached to the, as he struggled to keep them open. Even though his eyes were heavy Ganta slowly rotated his head around enough to see the dart in his shoulder and that they were surrounded. Scores of darkly armored men with guns seemed to spawn from the shadows and walked closer to them. Ganta turned his head to look at Senji and saw that he was already asleep on the ground with a needle in his chest.

'_**Don't fall asleep on me you wuss.'**_ Ragnarok said in Ganta's tired mind.

'_What's going on?' _Ganta drunkenly thought as he saw Shiro coming towards him.

'_**I'm trying to get this tranquilizer out of you; I should be able to do it as long as they don't…'**_

**!PFFT-PFFT!**

'_**Never mind.'**_

The last thing that went through Ganta's mind as the darkness claimed him once again was Shiro's worried shout.

* * *

Techniques:

Branch of Sin: Crow Claw_ (__クロウ・クロウ__, Kurō Kurō)_: Crow Claw manifests as two large scythe-like blades, made of blood, extending from long cuts on Senji's, or Crow's, forearms. Not much else is known about this Branch of Sin, though it has proved itself immensely powerful as it can cut through a Necro Macro with ease.

* * *

**A/N: And that's chapter three revised, I hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for the next episode.**


	4. Curiouser and Curiouser

**A/N; Hey everyone this is Sharkteeth with the newest chapter of Black Blood Woodpecker. I have finished my summer courses, passed both with flying colors, so for all of the people who have been patiently waiting here's a chapter for you!**

"Welcome to Deadman Wonderland./**Where everyone is a little mad."** People/Ragnarok talking

'_The cake is a lie__**/ Eat the muffins instead' **_People/ Ragnarok thinking

"The insanity is all consuming." Techniques being used

Disclaimer: I do not own Deadman Wonderland or Soul Eater in anyway shape or form.

**Warning: The following fic has scenes of violence and semi-graphic language so if you read this then you must understand that and are reading this for the violence and language.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Curiouser and Curiouser….

Marching down one of the secret hallways of the G-Ward was a group of guards who were escorting Yō and Shiro to some unknown place. The G-Ward guards were some of the most highly trained individuals in the entire world; and that was something that they needed to be, since their task was to keep the monsters within G-Ward locked up. Combine their rigorous amount of training with the advanced technology and gear that they were outfitted with and you get a fighting force that was not to be underestimated by anyone.

"Where's Ganta!"

**!BAM!**

"OW!"

Well, most of the time anyways. They just never counted on a handling a fifteen year-old girl with superhuman strength and had a pension for hitting anything that was in-between her and her friend. They tried to keep the girl quiet but no matter how many times they would yell at her to be quiet or smack her around the girl would yell even louder and smack them with twice the force.

Shiro was pretty scuffed up; her face and outfit were covered in dark smudges of dirt and blood but her expression was locked in fierce determination. The men around her were responsible for kidnapping Ganta and she had to go save him. Cause that's what friends do and Ganta was her best friend, even though he didn't seem to remember her. As she delivered another bone jarring hit on the guard nearest to her, Shiro thought back to how this situation began.

When Ganta had been knocked out by these awful men Shiro did her best to keep them away from his sleeping form by punching anyone who dared get too close to her. Unfortunately for Shiro sometimes quantity did beat quality. After a bit of fighting, she and Yō were quickly subdued by the mob of prison guards while Ganta was taken away to a different location. While the guards did somehow manage to get her hands in a pair of cuffs, Shiro was determined to not go quietly. So with the extra bit of stamina and power that her fury granted her, Shiro bit, kicked, and bashed the guard that was closest to her; all the while screaming at them to take her back to Ganta.

"Hey! Where did you take Ganta?!" Shiro yelled once again as she kicked a guard in the shins.

The poor guard closet to Shiro was beaten black and blue by her mad assault. His helmet and visor were cracked from the young woman's punches and his suit was frayed from her trying to bite him. Eventually the man's willpower was shattered when a hit from the girl's mitten covered hands put a dent in his combat helmet.

"Ow please stop," The man begged as he took another kick from Shiro. "I already told you that we're taking you to him! Just stop hitting me."

Though the answer did nothing to satisfy Shiro's worries, she would behave for now. Just so she can get to Ganta sooner and eat some snacks with him again.

Realizing that the white haired devil in front of him had stopped her attack for now, the guard breathed a sigh of relief. He then made his displeasure known to his fellow guard. "Jeez, guarding the ones with powers is bad enough…"

Shiro then noticed that Ganta's new friend Yō-something, she couldn't quite remember the guy's name, looked a little interested in what the guards were saying.

"Ones… do you mean that there are actually more people who have that crazy power?" Yō said as he tried to subtly grill the guard for more information.

Thankfully it seemed as if one of the guards was feeling especially chatty today since he immediately started talking, "Huh? You mean to tell me that you actually came down here without knowing anything about this place? This entire facility was built to keep people like them in here. Each inmate is infected with a 'Branch of Sin'"

Shiro didn't really understand what the guards were talking about but it seemed as if Ganta's friend found something interesting about it. "Infected…?! Is it some kind of illness?"

The lead guard then walked up to a seemingly random wall and started to type on a keypad of some kind. "Who knows, apparently about ten years ago random people started to pop up with this power. They don't tell me much and that's just the way I like it."

The wall then opened up to reveal one of the many back allies that made up the main part of Deadman Wonderland. Yō didn't seem to notice what the guard had just done as he was still trying to get his questions answered.

"What kind of prison is this?" Yō asked, his voice hiding an undertone of eagerness.

The guard then spun around and grabbed Yō by the scruff of his shirt. "Like I'd tell you!"

Yō was then roughly thrown outside while Shiro was given a kick to her back that sent her stumbling forward. Shiro then realized that Ganta was nowhere around her, she had been tricked!

"Hey! Where's Ganta at?" Shiro yelled as she twirled around to face the closing door.

"Go find him yourself whitey." The guard the Shiro beat up said to her. "Just don't ever come back here again. Ohh and by the way..." The guard then held up a few cards that he had taken from Yō.

"These are being confiscated."

"No, my Cast Points!" Yō yelled as he tried to get back up and get his CP cards back.

Shiro didn't care about that though; all she cared about was rescuing Ganta! She knew that if that door shuts then she may never see Ganta again. She tried to leap forward to get back into the hidden corridor but she was to slow. Shiro let out a final shout as the door fully shut, blocking their way back into to the G-Ward and to saving her friend.

"GANTA!"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-Strange Garden-?-)

'_Hmmm…what?'_

Ganta blearily opened his eyes and took note of the deep blue sky that was staring back at him.

'_The sky? But I was underground in G-Ward. Was all of that a dream?' _Ganta then noticed that even though he was awake his body was still too tired to move. Not wanting to get up quite yet, Ganta turned his head to the side and felt multiple blades of grass brushing against his cheek. The fact that he was laying in grass underneath the blue sky tipped Ganta off that something was wrong.

How had he got here? Wasn't he sentenced to Deadman Wonderland for a crime that he didn't commit? Yeah…he was. It was starting to come back to Ganta now. The fight with the Red Man, running from Necro Macro, and then his fight with that man, Senji Ganta mentally corrected himself; it all came back to him. Then Ganta suddenly remembered something that made him bolt up from his laying down position.

"Yō! Shiro! Where are you guys?!" Ganta called out to his missing friends, hoping that they would answer him.

Ganta received no answer to his question but he did get a good look at the area that he was in, and what he saw made him even more confused.

'_How did I get into a garden?'_ Ganta thought as he looked around him.

Instead of the concrete prison of Deadman Wonderland Ganta found himself in a beautiful garden. Surrounding Ganta on all sides were hundreds of blue and white flowers that made the single patch of grass that Ganta was sitting on look like an island that was in the middle of an ocean. Looking to his left and then to his right Ganta could see a single Sakura tree in full bloom further into the garden and a lone stone path that led to a large building. The building itself was unremarkable but for some reason it seemed familiar to Ganta, though he did not know why.

"Yō…Shiro…Ragnarok? Where is everybody!?" Ganta once more yelled for his friends as he got up to his feet.

Once he was standing on his own two feet Ganta finally noticed something odd in the flower patch to his left. Laying in a small group of blue flowers was a single piece of white paper. Hoping to find some clue to where he was at Ganta walked over to the blue flowers and picked up the paper. At first Ganta thought this it was a simple piece of blank paper until he noticed that there was something drawn on the other side of the sheet. Flipping the paper over Ganta could see that someone had drawn a picture of a river bank at night using crayons. Looking at the picture something seemed to click into place in his mind.

"Wait…I remember that river." Ganta muttered to himself as he stared at the drawing, his horrible memory finally kicking into high gear. "Yeah…this is the river that's right by Mimi's house…"

Before Ganta could begin to wonder why there was a picture of Mimi's river in this weird place something happened. The paper in his hand was engulfed in a bright light that forced Ganta to close his eyes or risk going blind.

"What the hell!" Ganta yelped as he snapped his eyes shut.

After a bit of time had passed, Ganta very slowly opened his eyes and saw that the bright light had dissipated; revealing to Ganta an all too familiar scene. The strange garden that Ganta had once been in had disappeared, only to be replaced with the familiar setting of the river near Mimi's house. The blue sky that was there to greet him when he had awakened had been replaced with the starry void of night and dozens of fire-flies danced in the air around him.

Ganta himself was sitting by the bank of the river with a few match books in his hands as he waited for his friends to arrive with the fireworks. The entire event was too confusing for Ganta to handle and tried to stand up, but it seemed as if his body would not listen to him.

'_What the hell? Why can't I move at all?' _Ganta thought in frustration as he tried to get his body to obey his mental commands. After a bit of inner struggling Ganta simply gave up and just began to take in his surroundings.

'_Wait a minute I recognize this place…' _Ganta thought as he remembered this exact scene happening to him a few years ago. _'Yeah, this was the area where I set off fireworks with Mimi and Yamakatsu about a year ago. But how did I get here?'_

"Ganta-kun!" A hauntingly familiar female voice called out into the night air. The images that sped through Ganta's mind of the voice's owner almost made his- mental-heart stop beating.

'_No it can't be, she's dead! I saw her severed head, there's no way that she's alive!' _Even as Ganta's mental anguish went on, his body started to move by itself as it turned around to face two ghosts of Ganta's past.

"Mimi, Yamakatsu what took you guy's so long?" Ganta body said as it got up from its sitting position. Mimi and Yamakatsu were coming from the hidden path that led up to the river; both appeared to be alive and healthy unlike the last time that Ganta saw them. Mimi was wearing a pink festival kimono and had a small pinwheel in her hand while Yamakatsu was carrying a large box of fireworks as he hiked up to the river.

"Sorry Ganta-kun, but Yamakatsu took too long with soccer practice." Mimi said as she and Yamakatsu joined Ganta by the side of the river.

_'No! This isn't possible, they're both dead! This can't be real!'_

"Sure sure blame the jock…" Yamakatsu mumbled as he set the box of fireworks down on the ground. "By the way Ganta, did you bring the matches?"

_'Matches__? __What is he __talking_ _about?!' _

Ganta's body then raised its hand to show off the matches that it was clutching. "Yep, I've got them right here."

_'I... I've seen this somewhere before! But when...?'_

"Sweet! Let's start this party off right!" Yamakatsu said as he took out some Sparklers from the box and lit them up.

_'... This happened last year... during the Summer Festival.'_ Ganta thought in sudden realization. _'Mimi, Yamakatsu, and I shot off fireworks in the area behind Mimi's house...'_

Ganta could only watch in fond nostalgia as the scene played itself out exactly the same way that he remembered it from a year ago. Yamakatsu lit up a few firecrackers and threw them into the air as Mimi picked up another sparkler and lit it up. Ganta's body on the other hand was shooting some bottle rockets into the air, lighting up the area with blue and green explosions.

'_That's right…' _Ganta thought as he watched Mimi dance around with a sparkler in one hand and a pin-wheel in another. The way that the fire-flies seemed to fly around Mimi only made the scene that much more special to him. _'This is when I started to feel that there was something more between Mimi and me'_

Ganta's good mood then did a one-eighty as he remembered what happened to his friends. _'I swear that I will avenge you guys. That Red Man will die by my hands.'_

Ganta then watched as the three of them set up the last of the bottle rockets for the grand finale. Using the last of the matches, Ganta's body lit the fuse on the rocket and then hurried back to stand with his friends. Once the fuse was fully consumed by the flame, the rocket shot up into the air with a screech. The rocket did a few corkscrews in the air before it exploded in a brilliant display of white and red.

Ganta was then startled as the light from the rocket seemed to grow with intensity as it started to spread outwards. Mimi and Yamakatsu didn't seem to notice the light as it consumed them and the surrounding area in a never-ending void of white. Eventually the entire area was replaced with the white void as Ganta could feel his body finally surrender control to him. Once Ganta could move his body again the void around him began to give way to the Strange Garden once more.

Ganta didn't how long he just stood there, his mind not willing to accept that what he just saw happened. He then looked down in his hand and saw that the piece of paper was still in his hands but the picture on it was different. Now instead of an empty river bank he could see that Mimi in her kimono and Yamakatsu with sparklers in his hands.

"That was…a memory?" Ganta asked himself as he stared at the new picture in his hand.

A sudden gust of wind tore the paper from Ganta's hand and surrounded him in a fog of sakura blossoms. Ganta covered his eyes with his arms as the wind started to through dirt into the air. After a bit, the winds died down and Ganta lowered his arms to see what had happened.

Oddly enough, the Strange Garden seemed untouched by the winds but Ganta did notice that the Sakura tree wasn't as lucky. The branches that once held so many Sakura blossoms now laid bare as not a single flower remained on it. As Ganta examined the tree some more he noticed something that was definitely not there before. Stuck in one of the lower branches of the tree was a single piece of paper, just like the one that he found in the blue flowers.

Hoping to find another clue to where he was at, Ganta started to walk towards the tree. While Ganta walked over to the barren Sakura tree he never noticed the creeping darkness that was slowly starting to seep out of the building next to the Strange Garden. Ganta made his way through the Strange Garden and to the barren Sakura tree with a fast pace, hoping to find out just what the hell was going on. Once he stood next to the tree's trunk, Ganta reached up towards the branch where paper was.

Ever so delicately Ganta removed the paper and turned it over so he could see what was drawn on it. What Ganta saw drawn on the back side of the paper confused him to no end. Like the last picture this one was drawn using crayons but it looked like someone tried to hide the picture by scribbling over it with a black crayon. Unfortunately because of this, Ganta couldn't make out what was drawn beneath the black crayon.

"What is this?" Ganta muttered to himself as he tried to see past the black lines that were obscuring the paper. "Why is this covered like this? Did someone want to hide what was drawn here?"

Ganta then lightly touched the picture with his other hand, but the instant that his fingers touched the paper something amazing started to happen. Ganta looked on with wide eyes as the black crayon started to fade from the picture. Eventually, all of the obscuring crayon marks faded away to reveal the picture that was hidden beneath. The picture depicted a long hallway of some kind that was painted with a white color and it seemed to go on forever into the picture's surface.

"Wait, what's going on?" Ganta mumbled in confusion as he examined the drawing on the paper. "These things show memories right? But…I've never seen this place before in my life."

Before Ganta could contemplate what the picture could mean, it erupted into a great light; just like the one from before. Ganta instinctively closed his eyes and could once again feel his body starting to move on its own. Once he was sure that the light had faded Ganta opened his eyes and an unfamiliar setting was laid out before him.

'_Where am I?'_

Ganta's body was running down the sterile white hallways of some building that he didn't recognize. Ganta had a plastic bag in one hand while the other one was waving around an Aceman action figure. Everything was bigger than Ganta as he belatedly realized that he was now viewing the actions of himself when he was younger. Another thing that worried Ganta was that there was no sound. All the noises that Ganta expected to hear, form the clopping of his shoes to the rustle of the bag in his hands, had been muted somehow.

'_This is supposed to be my memory but…why can't I remember this? And why is everything muffled?'_

Young Ganta kept running through the halls for a few minutes before he came upon a large window of some kind. Young Ganta paused momentarily to look through the window and what Ganta saw through his younger self's eyes made him even more confused.

'_Mom?'_

Standing in a laboratory of some kind was Sorae Igarashi wearing a lab coat as she ordered the technicians around. Though Ganta couldn't hear her he could easily the frustration in his mother's body language. Sorae Igarashi was yelling at the other people in the room, probably telling them what to do since they all started to run around the lab when she was finished. Sorae then ran her hand through her long dark hair and began to…cry.

'_Why is mom crying? What's going on here?'_

Before Ganta could think any further his body decided that it was time to leave. Turning away from the window Young Ganta raced down the hallways and away from the lab. Eventually Ganta's body came upon a seemingly random door in the hallway and began to open it. As the door slowly creaked open a bright light seemed to flood out from the room behind it, blinding Ganta.

'_No! What's behind that door?'_

Before Ganta could even get a peek into the room the light became too grand and engulfed everything into the white void and ending the memory. Once Ganta felt his body's control return to him he found himself once again standing before the barren Sakura tree with the piece of paper in his hands.

"What the hell was that? I don't remember anything like that happening to me." Ganta said as he looked down at the paper. Like the one before it, the picture that was drawn on it had changed, as it now depicted that mysterious door from his memory opening up, but he could not see what was behind it.

"If these papers show my memories then does that mean that…this is my mind?"

As though in response to his question something violently grabbed his wrist and tried to yank him backwards.

"W-what is this?" Ganta yelled as he was almost yanked backwards. While whatever it was didn't have the strength to pull him back it did make him drop the picture that was in his hand. Ganta looked down at his wrist as he tried to pry off whatever was grabbing him and saw what had latched onto his wrist. There, wrapped tightly around his wrist was a long tendril of black liquid. Ganta then realized in horror that it was his own blood that was attacking him.

Spinning around, while still trying to pry the tendril off his wrist, Ganta saw that the Strange Garden was slowly being taken over and corrupted by the black blood. From the building that Ganta had ignored earlier a creeping darkness made of his blood seemed to be seeping out and corrupting the world around him. The flowers were chocked to death by black thorny vines with blood red roses blooming from them. The grass was replaced with dark marble that formed a twisted pathway through the dark garden and up to the building. Even the sky was not safe from the spreading corruption; the once blue afternoon sky was replaced with the fiery orange visage of the twilight hours.

Ganta knew that he had to get away from the tide of black blood before him and furiously tried to get the tendril to let go of him. His blood had other plans though as it sensed his desperate struggling.

From the approaching darkness four more tendrils shot out; three of them quickly restrained Ganta's limbs while the fourth wrapped tightly around his neck. Then with a powerful pull, Ganta was laid out on his back as the tendrils started to drag him along the ground.

"NO !" Ganta desperately yelled as the tendrils dragged him into the black blood. He tried to claw and grab the dirt beneath his hands, but it all crumbled away in his grasp. Ganta was eventually brought before the tide of blood as it slowly started to crawl over his form.

'_No it can't end like this!' _ Ganta thought as the black blood moved up his chest and towards his neck. He tried to bat away the encroaching blood with his fist but it did no good as it merely started to move up his arm as well.

'_Please someone, anyone, save me!' _Though it appeared that no one heard Ganta's plea as the blood slowly began to cover Ganta's face.

'_Is this the end? Killed by my own blood?' _ Ganta morosely thought as the blood engulfed his entire head, plunging Ganta into never ending darkness.

"**There you are."**

With that familiar voice Ganta felt someone grabbed his wrist and yanked him away from the black blood's opened his eyes but couldn't make out who saved him from that grisly death since whoever it was stood behind him. Looking towards his wrist, Ganta could see a white glove that had a black line going down each finger and thumb grabbing it. He could only assume that it belonged to whoever had saved him.

"**I swear I can't leave you alone for five minutes without something trying to kill your pathetic ass."**

Ganta couldn't look over his shoulder since his body seemed stuck for some reason but he would recognize that obnoxious voice from anywhere.

"Ragnarok?" Ganta managed to mutter as he attempted to look behind him.

"**Well, it's good that you recognize my awesome voice but you don't have any time to be sleeping. It's time for you to wake up!" **

With that Ganta was spun around just in time to see a large white fist coming straight at him.

**!BAM!**

XXXXXXXXX

(-G-Ward Medical Center-)

Ganta awoke from his unconscious state with a sudden lurch as the pain from Ragnarok's punch knocked him into the waking world. The first thing that Ganta registered was that he was no longer in front of the entrance of G-ward and the second was that his face still hurt from where Ragnarok punched him.

'_Oww! That hurt Ragnarok. Why did you have to punch me?'_

'_**Don't you complain about that little love tap you wuss, it was the only way to wake you up. Besides we have bigger things to worry about."**_

Ganta had no idea what Ragnarok meant but as he began to look around at his surroundings he was starting to comprehend the severity of his situation. The first thing that Ganta noticed was that he was tightly secured to a large metal slab by four large metal shackles that wrapped around his arms and legs. Looking down at his body Ganta could see that a round metal object of some kind was placed on his chest, just over his heart.

Ganta then looked around at his surroundings and determined that he was in a laboratory of some kind. Doctors and scientists in white lab coats were standing around some large machines of some kind, examining the figures and data that was shown on the monitors. On the far wall to Ganta's left was a large glass door, the fog that obscured the contents of the room told Ganta that it was a freezer of some kind. The only other thing of interest that Ganta noted was the panel a few feet away from him that was hooked up to the slab that he was strapped to.

"Ahh you're awake, that's good. It would've been terribly lazy of you if you had slept the entire day away, Ganta Igarashi-Kun."

Ganta turned his head to the source of the decidedly familiar voice and found himself staring straight at the squinting form of Tamaki.

"You…" Ganta began as his eyes widened in recognition. "You're my lawyer."

Tamaki then tilted his head to the side in fake confusion at Ganta's statement. "Hmmm? Actually I'm the promoter here. Though it is my job to get some new 'blood' into our facility. Heh heh blood." Tamaki actually chuckled at his own pun for a moment before he turned his attention to the panel that was hooked up to the machine that Ganta was strapped to

Ganta's mind was running a mile a minute with the startling revelation that his lawyer worked at Deadman Wonderland. The memories of his trial started to flash before his eyes as a horrifying thought came to him.

"Wait, my trial… the Red Man murdered all of my classmates and then you took my case. You said that you would get me acquitted… but then that false confession showed up…." Ganta muttered in horror as everything finally came together.

'_**The fox-eyed bastard set us up!'**_ Ragnarok finished Ganta's thought, his voice was dripping with rage and hatred for Tamaki.

"Oh yes, I know all about that evidence." Tamaki said as he turned his attention back to Ganta. "I did create it after all."

Ganta froze up at Tamaki's casual admittance at framing him for his classmates' murder; even his breathing took a pause for a moment. This four eyed bastard was the reason that he was sent to this hell hole and he was bragging about it! As Ganta's building rage started to reach it's boiling point, Tamaki continued to explain how he framed Ganta.

"Of course the hardest part of creating the evidence was finding a believable double for that little 'confession' video. But when you have as much experience in falsifying evidence as I do, it all becomes child's play."

With that last pride filled boast from Tamaki something snapped within Ganta. A roaring fire of hatred and rage exploded in his chest and spread to the rest of his body. So great was his hatred for the man before him that only his need for revenge against the Red Man surpassed this new emotion.

"You four-eyed bastard! I'm going to kill you!" Ganta screamed as he began to thrash against his restraints. The metal around his arms and legs groaned underneath the pressure that Ganta put them through but they did not give.

A black bloody limb erupted from an open cut on Ganta's leg and reached out to snap Tamaki's neck. Tamaki's eyes actually opened in surprise at the sight of the approaching limb but gave no other hint of worry. Before the limb could reach him, Tamaki tapped a button on the panel that he was standing by.

Ganta's entire body seized up in pain as electricity suddenly shot through it. All of his muscles locked up as the electricity surged through his nervous system, he couldn't even yell out in pain since his mouth refused to open. Though this did nothing to stop the screams of pain that were echoing through his mind; both his and Ragnarok's.

'_**AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! It hurts, make it stop!' **_ Ragnarok yelled out as the electricity surged through their brain.

The bloody limb twitched and jerked erratically in the air before it dissolved back into its liquid form and splattered onto the floor. Tamaki looked at the black blood on the floor for a few seconds before he turned his attention back to the twitching Ganta.

"My my Ganta-kun, that was incredibly rude of you. While you do interest me I do not approve of my toys attacking me like some rabid dog. You should show some more respect to your betters." Tamaki lectured as he switched the power on the machine to a higher setting, causing Ganta's body to convulse within its restraints. "Perhaps you meant to call me sir? When you address someone who is above you, you should always say 'Yes sir', 'No sir', and 'Thank you sir'!"

"Promoter Tamaki-sir, please stop!" One of the orderlies exclaimed as she rushed over to Tamaki and Ganta. "If you shock him any further then we can't use him in the experiment tomorrow."

Tamaki looked disappointed for a second before he began speaking in a tone that was similar to a child who had his toy taken away. "Damn…alright then."

Tamaki then tapped another button on the control panel which cut off the flow of electricity. Ganta immediately started to take in large ragged breaths as he was finally could open his mouth and get his lungs to work. Eventually Ganta felt good enough to speak, even though some of his muscles still twitched occasionally from the residual electricity that flowed through his body.

"What…experiment?" Ganta managed to get out before he was forced to continue his ragged breathing.

"Oh it's just a little attraction that we do here at Deadman Wonderland for our big contributors." Tamaki then snapped his fingers once which caused a large virtual screen to appear behind him. On the screen was a picture of a somewhat dopey looking cartoon Woodpecker staring down a smirking Crow that had two feathers on its forearms. The two feathers looked suspiciously like the blades that Senji had when he fought against Ganta.

"Tomorrow at two o'clock you will be preforming in a show." Tamaki began as he spread his arms out to pose and spoke in a semi-dramatic tone of voice. "Ganta Igarashi, codename Woodpecker, a rookie Deadman will fight against one of the arena's veterans, 'The Crow' Senji Kyomasa. A fight between two individuals with a "Branch of Sin", this is the carnival Corpse."

"And why the hell should I do anything that you want?!" Ganta yelled out in anger at the thought of playing into that four eyed fox bastard's hands.

Tamaki actually had the nerve to look disappointed in Ganta's decision but he continued to talk nonetheless. "Now now, that won't do, if you win then you'll receive CP and a candy."

If anything that only got Ganta to glare harder at Tamaki, a bit of dark hatred actually managed to slip into the young lad's expression. Tamaki saw the rebellious nature in Ganta's eyes and then adopted a thinking pose, as if he was trying to decide on what to do.

"Hmm, well if greed and self-preservation mean nothing to you then how about revenge?"

Ganta's attention was solely focused on Tamaki, his mind settling on the one possibility that Tamaki could be offering.

'_No...He can't mean…'_

"Yes, on that day in your school… a momentous event occurred." Tamaki's eyes then fully opened as he looked down at Ganta with his light grey eyes. "To think that he actually allowed you to live after you saw him. That man who's clad in red and the one who killed all of your little friends is right here in Deadman Wonderland. Here we call him the Wretched Egg..."

The rage and hatred returned to Ganta at finally hearing the name of the man that he hated with all of his being. Ganta's struggling against his bonds increased as he tried to break free and kill the man in front of him.

"You bastard let me go! You and the Red Man…" Ganta yelled as his struggling grew more intense. "I'M GOING TO KILL THE BOTH OF YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME? I'LL KILL YOU!"

Though Ganta couldn't see it, the color in his eyes began to drain away as the hold on his emotions loosened. Tamaki's grin stretched further as Ganta's eyes settled on a shade of grey that was just above pure white. It appeared that the Woodpecker was even more interesting then he first thought.

"Well then…" Tamaki began to say to Ganta as he stared down at him. "You better get on stage tomorrow and win the Carnival Corpse if you ever want to see that man who killed your friends."

With that Tamaki turned away from Ganta and walked out of the lab with a slight spring in his step. As Ganta watched Tamaki leave he could feel the anger that gripped his mind cool a bit; his eyes returned to their natural color and his thoughts became clearer. Eventually Ganta realized that throughout the entire conversation with Tamaki, Ragnarok had not made a single comment. Which was surprising since he normally couldn't be kept from insulting people.

'_Ragnarok, are you okay?'_

Silence was Ganta's only answer for a bit before a series of mental coughs echoed through his head. After a bit the Coughs subsided and the familiar voice of Ragnarok finally spoke up_. __**'Oww, that fricken hurt GUPI! When I see that bastard I'm gonna wring his neck!'**_

'_Get in line; anyways did you hear what he said?'_ Ganta asked Ragnarok as some technicians started to clean up his spilt blood.

'_**Of course I did, unlike you my hearing is fine. So, it looks like if you want your revenge then you'll have to kill some people, that's fine with me."**_

Ganta eye's widened at Ragnarok's bluntness at the prospect killing people. He knew that Ragnarok often gave violent advice but he never thought that he was serious. But the way that Ragnarok casually spoke about death finally hit home on how brutal his mental companion really was.

'_But…but I can't just kill people whenever I feel like it. That would make me as bad as the Red Man and I wouldn't know how to deal with that.'_

A mental scoff from Ragnarok was the response that Ganta got. Ragnarok then continued his tongue lashing of Ganta. _**'If you really believe that then you're even stupider then I gave you credit for. This place is a temple of madness and all who reside in it will lose themselves to it.'**_

'_I won't let that happen! I won't let this place get to me like that!' _Ganta thought, with determination in his pledge not to change.

'_**he…heHAHAHAHAHAHA! Aww that was a good laugh, who said that this place was the thing that will make you go mad? After all, every temple needs a God to worship…"**_

Ganta felt a chill go down his spine at what Ragnarok was saying, or rather what he was implying. _'Are you talking about the Wretched Egg?'_

'_**Gupi…maybe I am or maybe I'm not. For now I'm gonna take a nap…wake me up when that fox comes back.**_

'_Wait Ragnarok I had more questions for you!' _Ganta yelled out in his mind, only to receive a loud snore as an answer. With nothing better to do, and to keep his mind occupied, Ganta began counting the dots on the ceiling as he waited for the Carnival Corpse to begin

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(-A-Ward-)

Hiding out in one of the many alleyways that made up the labyrinth of A-Ward, Shiro and Yō were planning on what to do next. After they had been thrown out of G-ward Yō and Shiro had done whatever they could to avoid the regular prison guards. It wouldn't do them any good to be caught by Makina's men when they needed to get back to G-Ward.

Luckily for Yō, it seemed as if Shiro was an expert when it came to navigating through Deadman Wonderland. With her knowledge and his experience with avoiding the attention of the law, they were able to slip by any guard that wondered to close to them with little trouble.

Unfortunately, even with Shiro's intimate understanding of the inner workings of Deadman Wonderland, they could not find any other entrance to G-Ward no matter how hard they looked. They spent hours wandering through A-Ward and they weren't any closer to finding G-Ward then when they began. With the repeated unsuccessful attempts weighing down on his mind and hunger making his body sluggish; Yō decided that they needed to call it a night.

Shiro directed them to an empty storage building while Yō broke out his emergency supply of nutria-blocks. Yō looked at the plain white block with disgust but his hunger won over his hesitance and he started to eat the disgusting white block.

After taking the first bite Yō's entire body shivered in disgust as the taste of the nutria-block assaulted him.

"Uggh, that's some nasty stuff." Yō ignored the horrible aftertaste in his mouth and took another bite of the nutria-block, once again his entire body shivered in disgust. "That is putrid; I really need to get my CP back."

Yō then looked up from his 'meal' and saw that Shiro was standing on her tip-toes while nervously looking out the window for any guards. Looking at the strange girl brought up another issue to the forefront of Yō's mind, just who the hell was Shiro.

Not once in his two years at Deadman Wonderland has he seen this albino girl and yet the instant that he starts watching over Ganta she practically pops out of the woodwork at the strangest of moments. There was something definitely wrong with the girl, and it wasn't just her sunshine personality. There was something else about her that set his senses off. Her intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Deadman Wonderland and her incredible strength made her an unknown in his plans.

But he could take advantage of her naivety though. With strength like hers, he could find the person that he was looking for much faster.

'_Minatsuki…' _ Yō thought with no small amount of sadness.

Before he could think any further though, Shiro's worried voice had pierced through his muddled mind. Looking up Yō saw that she had stopped looking out the window and was now fidgeting with worry.

"Hey! We need to get back down there and save Ganta." Shiro said as she looked from side to side.

Yō sighed in annoyance at Shiro's continuous worry for Ganta. Ever since they had been thrown out of G-Ward she would not shut up about getting back to Ganta and quite frankly it was starting to get on his nerves. Sure he wanted to get back to G-Ward, for his CP cards, but you don't see him whining about it.

"Shiro, I want to get back down there just as much as you do…" Yō said with -fake- sympathy. "But there's no way to do it. Not only are there dozens of guards patrolling the entire area but the only entrance to that place has been sealed off. So if we ever want to get back to G-Ward and free Ganta then we'll need another way in."

With every hurdle that Yō pointed out Shiro seemed to become more and more distressed. Now Shiro was practically vibrating with concern for Ganta and her face was settled in grimace. Eventually Yō decided to give the girl a bit of comfort since even he was starting to feel sorry for her.

"You really shouldn't worry about Ganta that much. He's got that power that sent the Necro Macro and that Crow guy packing so perhaps he'll be fine."

Shiro then shook her head vigorously left and right in a negative fashion at Yō's comment. "No! Ganta's too weak to be left alone."

Yō was stunned at Shiro assured answer at Ganta's perceived weakness. Sure the kid was a little on the frail side but the power that he had made up for it. Shiro didn't think so apparently since she kept talking about how weak Ganta was.

"Ganta maybe my friend but if you're no good, then you're no good. Ganta's has always been weak, except…"

Shiro then paused in her worries as her eyes began to glaze over as she lost herself to her memories. Yō noticed Shiro's pause and became curious about what she was going to say. After all it never hurt to gain more information about his target.

"Except what Shiro?"

Shiro didn't answer for a bit but when she did her voice was filled with fond remembrance.

"Ganta's always been weak but… when he starts acting funny he becomes as strong as Ragnarok."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

(Carnival Corpse Arena)

Ganta's entire body was shaking with fear as he waited in a large steel cage of some kind. The entire area around the cage was immersed in total darkness so he could not see past the bars. Ganta knew that it was only a few minutes before the Carnival Corpse would begin and he couldn't calm himself down, no matter how much he tried to. The rules of the game had been explained to him earlier by Tamaki and it really simple; fight until you or your opponent can no longer fight.

The winner of the Carnival Corpse was given a free Candy and a large amount of CP as a prize. The loser on the other hand...

Ganta's shaking grew worse as he remembered the frozen storage room that was filled to the brim with the preserved body parts of people who lost in the Carnival Corpse. The thought that one of those glass containers could be filled with parts of him if he lost today's match terrified Ganta to no end.

'_Shit, I'm so scared. I don't know how to deal with this.' _Ganta thought as he grasped his shaking right arm with his left one, in an effort to keep it still

'_**Quit being such a baby! Do I need to put tacks in your shoes?'**_

'_But what if I lose?' _Ganta thought with despair as Ragnarok merely scoffed at Ganta's fear.

'_**Try finding a spine why don't you? You won't lose. You have the most awesome of powers backing you up…ME!'**_

Oddly enough, Ragnarok's boast actually managed to strengthen Ganta's resolve. _'Your right, I can't lose here. I still have to kill that Red Man…' _

Ganta then paused in his thoughts as he remembered something that he wanted to ask of Ragnarok. '_Ragnarok I forgot to ask you this but something kept getting in the way. How do you know that Senji wasn't the Red Man? And the other times that I saw him you knew that he was there before even I did. Do you know where the Red Man is?'_

Before Ragnarok could answer Ganta's question the darkness that surrounded Ganta was replaced with a white light. The change was too sudden for Ganta who was momentarily blinded by the light. As the spots in his vision started to clear from Ganta's eyes he could finally make out the arena that he would be fighting for his life in.

The arena looked like a giant birdcage with thick steel bars and large twisted trees. Surrounding the cage were dozens of holographic screens with names and pictures on them; these were the audience if Ganta had to guess. Ganta's attention was instantly drawn cage, similar to his own, where Senji was being held until the fight could begin. Ganta looked down at Senji's side and noticed that the wound that he had left on him was stitched up so he could fight.

"**WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Thank you for coming to this week's Carnival Corpse!"**

Ganta jerked his head upwards and saw that at the top of the cage was a large mechanical bird that was sitting on a perch. The bird had a speaker in its mouth as a loud voice echoed from it.

'_It's starting…' _Ganta thought as the talking amongst the crowd grew louder.

"**This week we have a very special match for all of our loyal watchers. Now let me introduce the Deadmen who will be participating today."**

The lights dimmed a bit as a pair of spotlights shined down onto Ganta and Senji as the cages were lifted off the two, **"Standing tall on one side of the arena is a veteran of the Carnival , Crow!"**

The crowd erupted into cheers at Crow's introduction as the smirk on his face grew even wider

"**And facing the veteran is a new blood of the Carnival, fifteen year old Woodpecker!"**

As the announcer continued his speech, Senji took his knife ring and cut open his forearm, allowing the blood to fly into the air. Ganta knew that he needed to be bleeding to win so he took his thumb and bit down on it until he could taste the metallic flavor of his blood.

"**Now then if everyone's ready… Deadmen FIGHT!"**

With that Ganta turned tail from Senji and ran towards the nearest twisted tree. Senji looked mildly disappointed with Ganta's actions but formed his Crow Claws regardless and took off after Ganta regardless.

"What the hell kid?" Senji said as he chased after Ganta. "It's too early to play tag yet."

Thankfully for Ganta the tree's trunks and branches were at a low enough angle for him to run on. Taking a single look back Ganta judged that he was far away enough from Senji that he knew that it was time to attack. Settling on one of the higher branches of the tree Ganta turned to face Senji and tried to call on his powers.

'_Come on…'_ Ganta thought as he stared at his bleeding thumb. With one final mental push, the black blood flew from his wound, but it was not as much as he was hoping for.

'_Good enough.' _Ganta thought as he fired the small bullet at the grinning Crow.

Senji saw the shot coming a mile away and could've easily stepped out of its path but he chose not to. Though he remembered how easily Ganta shattered his blades in the last fight between them, Senji decided to see if that was a onetime fluke or not. Besides, this bullet was much smaller and slower than the one that shattered his blade.

'_Nothing ventured, nothing gained…' _ With that thought Senji swung his blades at the incoming bullet. With a brief screeching sound, the blades cut the black blood bullet to pieces. Senji's grin threatened to split his face in two as he turned his battle hungry gaze up towards Ganta.

"Bang."

Ganta's shaking grew worse as he saw how ineffective his attack was. In a desperate effort, Ganta forced more of his blood into his palm and shot it towards the still grinning Senji.

Senji, almost casually, swung his blades out at the bullet and cut through it the ease of swatting a fly. This time though his blades did not come out unscratched as small cracks formed at the spot where the bullet hit the blades.

'_Dang.' _Senji thought as he used as very small amount of his blood to repair the damage on his blades. _'The kids bullets are so fricken dense it's like trying to cut through diamonds.'_

The aura of bloodlust around Senji became more intense at the thought.

'_Perhaps that first fight wasn't a fluke after all.'_

Ganta's resolve weakened further as he felt the waves of bloodlust and insanity roll off of Senji. His knees began shaking with fear as his face grew damp with sweat as he stared at the grinning face of Senji.

"**This certainly is an amazing show today folks! Crow is in top form today. Can Woodpecker make a comeback and clip the Crow's wings?" **The large mechanical bird announced as the audience chatted amongst themselves on what was happening in the match.

'_This isn't good.' _Ganta thought as he turned his attention back to his bleeding digit. _'I need more blood.'_

As if in response to his thoughts more blood began to pour out of his thumb and hover above his palm. Once the ball of blood was as large as a baseball Ganta knew that it was time to go back onto the offensive.

"Eat this!" Ganta yelled as he launched the large ball of blood at Senji.

Senji saw the large bullet of blood coming towards him like a meteor and in a split second he knew what he needed to do. Senji knew that an attack from Ganta of that size and density would easily shatter his blades and take him out of the fight so he would need to dodge. And if he could dodge this next attack then Ganta would be venerable, after all he had been shooting out his blood for a while now so he must be running low soon.

'_And after that, it'll be time for this little Woodpecker to see what life is really like.'_

The muscles in Senji's tensed and bulged as he bent low to the ground with his arms held at his sides. In a burst of movement, Senji's legs let lose all of their stored energy in a single moment that sent him rocketing forward. The large blood bullet missed Senji back by mere centimeters and impacted against the floor of the arena, leaving a large gouge in the floor. Senji grinned at his success and finally went back onto the offensive.

Ganta didn't know what happened. One moment he was looking down at Senji and the next moment the tree he was on was sliced to pieces and he was covered in new cuts.

'_He shouldn't have been able to reach me.' _Ganta thought as he landed roughly on the ground. Ganta then finally took notice the change in Senji's blades.

'_There are holes in his blades.' _

Senji's blade was now impossibly long, both were easily a good twelve feet each, but they looked radically different now. The blades were now filled with large hexagonal holes that extended the reach of them for beyond what they would've been if they were a solid piece. And judging by how easily Senji cut the tree into pieces they were as sharp as ever.

"Well kid," Senji said as he stood over Ganta with his blades still extended. "You did good for a rookie but it's time for you to learn how the world of adults really works." With that Senji got into his battle stance for what he thought would be the final strike.

"And Senji Kiyomasa will be the one who will teach you."

Before he could lash out though a black blood limb burst out from one of Ganta's wounds and flew straight towards Senji. The sight of the limb stunned Senji so bad that he didn't even try to dodge it as it landed a sucker punch right on his jaw. The force of the blow was so great that it actually sent him flying away from Ganta, giving him room to stand on his own two feet.

'_**Okay that's enough of watching you make an idiot out of yourself.' **_

"Ragnarok…" Ganta said, not bothering to speak within his mind.

'_**It's time that I finally make my appearance.'**_

Before Ganta could even wonder by what Ragnarok meant, a deep painful sensation ran through him. The pain was even worse than the time at the entrance to G-Ward and Ganta very well thought that he would go mad with the pain.

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG HHHHHHHH!"

A bloodcurdling scream was released from Ganta's lips as a white, fiery pain blossomed throughout his head. As he continued screaming Ganta slumped forward, clutching his head tightly in an effort to lessen the pain.

It felt as though a fire had been lit in his brain and now it was starting to spread to his back where an entirely new sensation blossomed to Ganta. It felt like someone was trying to claw their way out of his back.

Senji had no idea what was going on. First off just as he was about start turning the fight to his favor the kid made a fist, of all things, out of his weird blood then punched him in the jaw with it. He didn't even know how that was possible: every Branch of Sin that he had gone up against before had only granted one ability to its user.

Sure if your imaginative and have a good Branch of Sin, like himself for example, then you can use a single Branch of Sin in multiple ways. But this kid had something else entirely, not only could he shoot his blood out like a bullet, but he could also make it form other shapes at will. That just wasn't natural. And now he was screaming like he was losing his damned mind.

Ganta then pitched forward and Senji saw something that made him pause in confusion.

Ganta's back appeared to be… bulging as though something was trying to push its way out of it. Ganta then gave one final scream as a literal fountain of black blood, more than Ganta should've had in his entire body, flew into the air behind Ganta. Senji and the audience could only watch in stunned silence as the blood surged into the air before it began to twist into a definite humanoid shape.

After a bit of twisting and compacting in midair the final form of the being was revealed to all who could see. The 'man' was connected to Ganta's back and appeared to be made of his black blood. He had a large muscular build and a pair of white gloves with black lines running down each of the gloves hands. The man had had silver wraps with spikes clasped around its wrist, neck and looping around its right shoulder.

His face was shaped like an egg and had no visible mouth but it did have a large white X on his face where his nose should be. Finally his eyes were bleached white with X's where the pupils should've been.

Ganta weekly looked up at the thing that was floating above him with no small sense of wonder.

"Ragnarok?"

XXXXXXXXXXX

(-Promoter Tamaki's Office-)

Tamaki could scarcely believe his eyes at the sight that was laid before him. It went beyond all of his expectations.

Like every time there was a Carnival Corpse Tamaki had retreated to his office to watch the fight through his special video goggles; he was especially excited for today's fight since it would be starring his newest toy, Woodpecker. The little preview that he got in the labs yesterday, when Ganta had tried to strangle him, had made him even more excited about the match. But Ganta's little outburst also revealed another mystery that needed to be solved; that magnificent black blood of his.

Once Tamaki had left the lab he instantly ordered his head researcher, Rei Takashima- a lovely young doctor who had a penchant for cutting up her patients- to analyze Ganta's blood that had been spilled onto the ground and the black crystal that was lodged in his chest. When she heard about the oddity that was their newest Deadman, Rei was practically vibrating with joy at the possible research that she could gleam from studying him.

While Dr. Takashima busied herself with her research, Tamaki decided to see how well Ganta would perform against Crow. At first the match was unremarkable, disappointing even, but when Crow had gone on the offensive everything changed.

Ganta had started screaming in pain for no apparent reason and then his blood had actually burst from his back. Tamaki watched breathlessly as the deluge of black blood actually formed into a creature of some kind that was connected to Ganta's back.

Tamaki was so enthralled by what was happening in the match that he didn't hear the Dr. Takashima enter the room.

"Promoter Tamaki…are you listening to me?"

Tamaki lifted his video goggle off his eyes and saw that Takashima had entered the room while he was paying attention to the Carnival Corpse. Rei Takashima had short, light-brown hair that was done up in a bob style that hung just above her brown eyes. She wore red lipstick, a lab coat, glasses and a tight-fitting short black dress that hugged her frame tightly. Like always she had a lit cigarette hanging loosely from her lips. She had an expression of annoyance on her face, probably from him not noticing her, and an electronic report clutched in her hand.

"Oh sorry Doctor, Ganta's fight was proving to be very interesting."

Takashima face twitched a bit at hearing about her newest test subject but her professional integrity won out over her curiosity.

"I have the analysis of the black crystal that is lodged in Prisoner 5580's chest."

"Ohh?" Tamaki said as he took the report form Takashima's hands. "Anything interesting?

"Indeed, the structure of the artifact, or the Ebony Jet as the lab techs refer to it, is similar to the Red Diamonds that were found after the Tokyo Earthquake. It does show some key similarities to the Red Diamonds but the crystalline structure of the artifact is noticeably different."

Her face then gained a slight blush as she continued talking. "We couldn't gain any meaningful readings from our tests. If we want anything more substantial than we would need to cut to 5580 open to do so."

Tamaki was silent for a bit before he tapped a button on the side of his goggles which caused a large holographic screen to appear in his office. The screen then flickered to life allowing the live feed of the arena to filter in. Rei stared at the screen for a moment before her cigarette fell to the floor as her mouth dropped open in shock at the sight of the creature on Ganta's back. The thoughts of all of the possible scientific discoveries that she could gleam from Ganta if she could dissect his corpse made her weak in the knees.

"I don't think that we'll be cutting this one up just quite yet." Tamaki said as he smiled at the shock on Rei's face. "After all, why would we kill an ultra-rare character like him?"

Tamaki chuckled to himself at the sight of Rei's disappointed face. Tamaki then turned his attention to the screen as Ganta finally began to move.

XXXXXXXXX

(-Carnival Corpse Arena-)

Everyone in the arena had been shocked into silence by what they had just seen. Never before had they seen anything like this. Even Senji, the battle hardened veteran that he was, was stunned at the sight before him.

While everyone was still stunned into silence Ragnarok slowly looked around at the area that he was in, as if he didn't quite believe that he was outside of Ganta's body.

"**Gupi?" **

"Ragnarok?" The low voice of Ganta cut through the silence.

Ragnarok turned his attention down towards Ganta and stared at him for what seemed to be the longest time. Ganta then blinked once as Ragnarok put both of his enclosed fists on the sides of his head and spoke with an anger filled voice.

**"Atomic Noogie!"**

With that, Ragnarok began to painfully grind his fists into Ganta's scalp. Ganta began to writhe and yell at the uncomfortable and painful sensation that he was feeling.

**"What the hell are you doing Ganta? How can you be losing to this prude Crow?"** Ragnarok yelled as he continued to grind Ganta's head with his fists.

"OW! Please stop doing that Ragnarok! It hurts!" Ganta yelled as he tried to get away from Ragnarok's grasp.

Ragnarok did stop giving a Ganta a noogie but he then gave Ganta a bop to the head as he continued to berate him.

"OW! That hurt to! Why did you just hit me?" Ganta whined as he rubbed the area where Ragnarok hit him.

"**Because you're so pathetic. I can't believe that you can't beat this guy by yourself!"**

In any normal situation Senji would've been insulted by being ignored in the middle of a fight but this had stopped being a normal situation a long time ago. Never before had he ever seen anything like this before. The fact that a creature made of Ganta's black blood had burst from the kid's back and started arguing with him was too surreal; even for him. So he did what he normally did when something confused him.

He cut it.

Ganta was still arguing with Ragnarok, the shock of his appearance had faded away with the first noogie, when all of a sudden the upper half of Ragnarok's body was spilt in two down the center. Ganta whipped his head around and saw that Senji was standing in the same spot that he was before but his blades were proliferated once again. Senji's face was twisted into a frown as he began to talk to Ganta.

"Kid, don't you know that it's rude to ignore the person that you're fighting against?"

Ganta's nervousness returned full force as he remembered the fight that he was supposed to be in. Sure the appearance of Ragnarok was shocking- or more like impossible- but he didn't see how it would help him now. And now that Ragnarok had been split in half it looked like his luck turned to the worse possible outcome.

Meanwhile, the two halves of Ragnarok seemed to be staring at each other, if the fact that his individual eyes were focused on the other half was any indication. Ragnarok's arms and then grasped either side of his split head then pushed his body back together. The cut that Senji had made then seamlessly healed, leaving Ragnarok in one solid piece.

Ragnarok then turned his glare towards Senji and began to rant again, **"You stupid prude Crow, do you have any idea how weird that felt? That's it. Ganta I order you to kick this guy's ass. And I'll help!"**

With that Ragnarok dissolved back into his bloody form but instead of retreating into Ganta the blood only hanged in mid-air like a black cloud. Then from the depths of the cloud of blood a handle that was wrapped with the same bindings that Ragnarok wore appeared. Ganta then hesitantly reached out and grasped the handle and began to pull it out of the cloud.

As Ganta pulled the handle out of the blood, the cloud started to shrink in size as the blood that made it up started to solidify around the handle. As Ganta pulled the handle more and more from the cloud the identity of the object became clear to everyone who was watching the match.

It was a sword.

But, as the last of the black blood consolidated, it became clear that this was no ordinary blade. The sword seemed to be a fusion of a sword and a gun; it had a long blade with a revolver's action built into the hilt. On each chamber of the gun's action cylinder were small silver eyes that greatly resembled the eye plates that appeared whenever Ganta had used his powers. The blade itself, bar the hilt, was pitch black alongside a long white stripe that ran down the length of it.

"What is this?" Ganta said as he looked upon the weapon with a sense of awe and wonder. In his grasp it was as light as a feather but for some reason he could tell that it carried a great hidden power.

Then, to further the surrealism of the situation, a portion of the blade near the revolver cylinders seemed to bulge outwards. Then from the bulging section of the blade a mouth filled with shark like teeth opened up and began to speak in the familiar voice of Ragnarok.

"**Come now Ganta, haven't you ever played Final Fantasy before?" **The mouth said before it morphed into a grin that would have made even the most terrible of villains proud. "**It's a Gunblade."**

Senji looked at Ganta's newest weapon for a second before he burst out in a fit of insane laughter. "Ka ka ka ka ka ka ka! Damn kid that was a pretty interesting show that you gave but it does leave me with one question. "Senji then casually pointed towards the blade in Ganta's hand and asked a single question. "Can you even use that thing?"

An ice cold realization settled in the pit of his stomach as he thought about the answer to Senji's question.

He had no idea how to even use a sword like this. Sure he took a kendo class or two in his spare time but this sword was nothing like the bokken that he used in practice. How was he supposed to win with a weapon that he had no idea how to use?

Before Ganta's thoughts could travel down that dark path even further down that dark path, Ragnarok released a dark chuckle.

"**Gupigupi, Normally that would be true but if I do this…"**

Ganta felt…something wash over his mind. It was not an unpleasant sensation at all. In fact it was like a gentle lullaby of a mother. It was so pleasant that he couldn't help but lose himself to it.

Senji's instincts sent out a loud warning to him as Ganta's head drooped forward so that his hair shadowed his face. Senji had no idea why, but it felt as though he was in the presence a mad beast of some kind. A single drop of sweat rolled down his face as he prepared his blades for battle.

'_What the hell is this kid?'_

Ganta's face was blank for what seemed to be an eternity until a large grin that would've fit of the Cheshire cat appeared on his face.

"**Then this fight becomes so much more interesting."**

XXXXXXXXXX

(-A-Ward-)

Yō looked at Shiro's smiling face with as what she just said ran throughout his head at a mile a minute.

'_Ragnarok? Wasn't that the name that Ganta called out before he sent Necro Macro flying?'_

Yō's mind tried to find some way in which all these seemingly random coincidences fit together but no matter how hard he tried he could not find the connection. The mystery of Ganta and Shiro was vexing him and he had absolutely no idea why. It was if he was trying to put together a puzzle without knowing what picture it made and half the pieces were missing. Yō then returned his attention to Shiro, since she seemed be holding a good deal of the puzzle pieces.

"Shiro do you know who Ragnarok is?"

Shiro seemed to brighten up at the mention of Ragnarok as she adamantly began talking. "Well Ragnarok is Aceman's greatest rival. They were equals in every way and every time that they would fight they would end up in a draw." Shiro then began to pout as she continued to explain. "Ragnarok is bad though since he steals whatever he wants."

That…was absolutely worthless. All Yō got was some made up character for some stupid children's show. Obviously he needed to approach this in a different way.

"Shiro what about the times that Ganta acted funny?" Yō asked the white-haired girl.

"Well…" Shiro began as she thought back to her younger years. "Shiro is Aceman, and whenever Ganta and Shiro would play together he would become afraid. When Ganta is afraid, he would shake, cry and even froth a little bit. But sometimes…"

Shiro's eyes glazed over as she remembered a particular scene from her childhood. It was her being reprimanded by Ganta's mother as Ganta was lying on the ground covered in bruises. She couldn't quite remember Sorae's words to her but she did remember the look of shock on her face as she looked at something behind her. Shiro remembered turning around and watching Ganta get back up as though he was a puppet with strings with a large twisted smile on his face.

"Ganta would act like he was Ragnarok and become as strong as Shiro."

* * *

(Black Blood Revelations)

A light shined down from the darkness and illuminated a tall figure that wore a long black cloak, that had many jagged edges, and mask that looked like a cartoon's version of a human's skull. From one of the sleeves of his cloak a large white hand appeared holding a…microphone?

"Welcome everyone to Black Blood Revelations! I'm your host, Lord Death!" The light that surrounded the Grim Reaper expanded in a second showing off a room that looked a lot like a large classroom with a giant television screen near the desk. Sitting in the desks of the classroom were a whole group of people who were clapping excitedly for Lord Death.

"Now this section of Black Blood Woodpecker is dedicated to exploring the capabilities of the Asura Worm or more specifically its defensive abilities. And since there is no one who is better qualified to do that job, let me introduce my co-host; Medusa Gorgon!"

Entering from the side of the classroom was Medusa Gorgon, looking just like she did when she died; bloodstains and all. The clapping was noticing absent for Medusa's entrance as the audience was giving her the evil eye.

Medusa gave a definite sneer as she looked at the audience. "I don't even know why I'm here. I have no interest in explaining my work to ignorant peons like these people.

"SHINIGAMI CHOPPU (DEATH GOD CHOP)!" Lord Death used one of his large white, blocky hands to deliver a karate chop straight to Medusa's head, sending her to the floor with a large bump on the noggin.

"Now Medusa don't be like that." Lord Death said as he held his still smoking hand in the air. "This is part of your eternal punishment for all of the sins that you committed."

Death's mask then morphed into a more horrifying version and poke in a tone that sent chills down everyone's spine. **"OR WOULD YOU RATHER I SEND YOU BACK TO THE ISLAND OF CARE BEARS AND PONIES?"**

Medusa's entire body shuddered in revulsion as she instantly shot to her feet and ran towards the screen.

"LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!"

Medusa pressed a hidden button on the side of the screen which caused it to turn on. On the screen two pictures were shown. On the left side of the screen there was a picture of Ganta gutting punched by Kōzuji and on the right scene was a picture of Ganta blocking Senji's blade with his arm.

Medusa then cleared her throat and begun her lecture about the defensive capabilities of the Asura Worm. "As you can see from the pictures above the Asura Worm provides its host with high defenses. But Ganta's seemingly invincibility against cuts and blunt attacks are actually two different abilities all together."

Medusa then pulled a remote from one of her pockets and pushed one of the buttons on it. Both of the pictures of Ganta darkened but his circulatory system became visible.

"If Ganta is about to be subjected to a slashing attack then the black blood in his veins can harden, preventing any blade from going any further then the skin. But as a drawback this does leave the host of the Asura Worm vulnerable to blunt force attacks. That's where the second defensive ability comes into play…"

Medusa then pointed towards the other picture and continued talking. "In the case of someone or something trying to smash Ganta, then his blood will diffuse to his capillaries where it would harden, providing a full body protection. Unfortunately since the blood is diffused throughout the entire surface of the body it is no longer effective in stopping slashing attacks. In fact if Ganta had tried to use this ability in has battle against Senji then…"

Medusa then made a slashing motion across her own neck.

"Ganta would've been split like a watermelon in Japan during the summer."

** .DONG**

"Oh it looks like we're out of time today." Lord Death said as the students began to leave. He then turned to Medusa and started to drag her by the collar of her shirt. "Now then Medusa it's time for your next punishment. Hmm, I think a few weeks in the Barney Zone will be appropriate."

"NOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

**A/N: That's a wrap for this chapter stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	5. How Puzzling All These Changes Are

**A/N: Hey everyone this is Sharkteeth, sorry this took so long to get posted but college has literally been eating up all of my free time. Hopefully the next chapter will come out sooner. Here's a common question I've been getting recently so I'll answer it now.**

**Mas2009:** - I know that you told us about the pairing but can you add Makina? ganta x shiro x makina because there was no fanfic included her in a relationship!  
- are you gonna follow canon? because it will be boring; I hope that you make ganta remember his past so that he grow a spine ...  
- can you tell me why did you write the scene with medusa at the end? will there be a crossover between 2 worlds? I prefer that you only let it in deadman universe!

**Answer: **On the issue of GantaxShiroxMakina pair, while that does sound like an awesome idea I unfortunately lack the necessary skills to write a good threesome-pairing so it's still GantaxShiro.

I will only follow the canon up until the changes I laid down earlier finally take a hold as a new storyline, and giving Ganta more if a spine is almost the exact opposite of making him more like Crona.

The scene at the end is like the Arrancar encyclopedia at the end of Bleach episodes, it's just there for comedy and to explain the principles of how the powers of the characters work. And there will be no world crossovers, this is strictly within the Deadman universe but I may use some Soul Eater characters and principles later on.

**That's it for this chapter's question but fell free to leave your questions in the reviews and I'll address them if I can.**

"Welcome to Deadman Wonderland./**Where everyone is a little mad."** People/Ragnarok talking

'_The cake is a lie__**/ Eat the muffins instead' **_People/ Ragnarok thinking

"The insanity is all consuming." Techniques being used

**!#####! **Sound effects

Disclaimer: I do not own Deadman Wonderland or Soul Eater in anyway shape or form.

**Warning: The following fic has scenes of violence and graphic language so if you read this then you must understand that and are reading this for the violence and language.**

* * *

Chapter 5: How Puzzling All These Changes Are..

(Japan's National Medical and Health Center-10 Years Ago)

In the outside areas of the Japan's National Medical and Health Center, Sorae Igarashi was searching high and low for a pair of small children who had not been seen for a quite some time.

"Ganta…Shiro…Where are you?" Sorae yelled as she looked for her son and his best friend.

Sorae had been searching for the pair of children for about an hour now and she was quickly reaching her patience's end. She had already checked a few their favorite hiding places, like the toy room where they ate pudding or the garden where they drew pictures; but so far she hadn't found them in any of them.

Right now she was behind of the storage buildings where the children would play Aceman when they had free time; she was hoping to find the missing children there this time. Though too be perfectly honest, a part of Sorae wished that she wouldn't find Ganta and Shiro.

Sorae unconsciously clutched the front of her sweater, right where Kenshin's wedding ring hung on a chain as she thought about Shiro. It was a nervous habit she had developed ever since the death of her husband whenever she was stressed. She managed to get control of the habit but it still resurfaced when she was under extreme duress, like when that nice doctor that took care of Ganta when he was a baby died.

Nowadays though thinking about Shiro…

Sorae knew exactly what kind of hell Shiro will go through when she found the little girl. After all why wouldn't she? She was the one who designed the tests that were to be performed on Shiro.

The thoughts of the experiments that she and the rest of her team had run on Shiro created yet another crack in the professional mask that's she had created when she first started the experiments. At first Sorae could maintain her professional stoicism when she and her colleges were experimenting on Shiro, but after the little girl had been befriended by her son she had come to care for her.

And that's why the guilt was eating away at Sorae's soul; she was torturing her son's best friend without him even knowing. Sorae always tried to tell herself that what she was doing would help millions of lives in the end. It eventually turn into a mantra that she constantly repeated to herself as she listened to Shiro's screams of pain and agony whenever Sorae had to experiment on the little girl.

It still didn't drive away the nightmares though.

**!BAM! **

"OWW!"

The sound of Ganta's pain filled yell brought Sorae out of her thoughts. Quickening her pace by just a bit, Sorae turned around the corner of the storage building and found the children in the empty lot that was so well hidden by the building itself.

Ganta was on the ground, covered in blood and dirt while Shiro stood above him while looking down at Ganta with a detached expression. Seeing the look on Shiro's face, Sorae's heart actually skipped a beat in fear.

Shiro's face and knuckles were covered in Ganta's blood and her expression was completely void of all emotions. Her ruby red eyes, once so full of life, were now colder than the ninth layer of hell itself. She looked down at Ganta, who was on the ground in pain, as though he was a bug that she just swatted. That that wasn't what terrified Sorae though. What froze her heart in fear was the fact that Shiro was wearing the same exact face that Sorae herself used whenever she had to experiment on the albino girl.

"You're no fun Ganta." Shiro coldly said as she stared down at the sniffling Ganta. "You're too weak to play with."

"Shiro!" Sorae yelled out as she raced towards the two children. Shiro turned away from Ganta just as Sorae grabbed onto her shoulders.

"Shiro, you need to be more careful." Sorae scolded the young girl. "Ganta isn't like you; he's just a normal boy."

Before Sorae could finish reprimanding the young girl an intense feeling of…wrongness filled the air. It was as if she had stepped into the den of a rabid animal that was waiting to strike at her from the shadows. All of her instincts were screaming at her to run from the hidden threat when she noticed that Shiro had turned her attention to something that was over her shoulder. Sorae slowly turned her head so she could see what Shiro was looking at and felt as if all the strength had left. Ganta now stood on his own two feet but something was definitely wrong with her child.

Ganta stood in a shaky super hero pose while his fingers would twitch and spasm erratically. His pupils were shrunken and his eyes moved in two different directions at the same time. Combine that with the wide grin on his face and Ganta looked positively insane.

"Ragnarok reporting for duty!"

At that point Sorae knew that something was wrong with her son.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Carnival Corpse Arena- 10 years later)

Senji Kiyomasa had seen some strange stuff in his life, hell he was a walking freak of nature himself; but the kid in front of him had just rose to the top five of his "Strange Shit" list. Though he didn't look like it, Ganta Igarashi just seemed to be one big ball of confusion and wrapped in multiple layers of mystery. Throughout the fight, Ganta proved to him again and again that all he was just a rookie with blood that was an unusual shade of color. Granted he had spirit in spades but the hatred and rage that he first saw in the kid's eyes just wasn't there anymore.

At first Senji was disappointed that the kid lost that spine of his but all of that changed when that black thing burst from the kid's back and turned into a gunblade of all things. Then Ganta went silent for a moment before Senji's senses flared to life in the presence of the threat in front of him.

Senji could almost feel palpable waves of madness flow from Ganta's form as the kid just stood there with that damn demented grin on his face. Senji's battle hardened instincts screamed at him to get away from Ganta but his feet seemed to be frozen in place. Despite all of that though, the smirk on his face twisted and contorted into a maniac smile that showed off his ever present bloodlust.

'_What the hell is this kid?' _Senji thought as he brought his Crow Claws up, just in case Ganta made a move. _'This feeling… it's like I'm standing in front of a fricken beast.'_

All of a sudden the strange tension that Ganta exuded was cut off, allowing Senji to breathe a bit easier. Before he could enjoy his good fortune, the form of Ganta was suddenly in front of him with a fist lodged in his gut. Senji's ribs threatened to snap as the sudden impact of Ganta's attack caused him to fly backwards. Senji tried to use his Crow Claws to slowdown or stop his impromptu flight but at the speed that he was flying at it did little good. Senji felt his bruised and battered ribs groan in protest as his back crashed into the side of the cage.

Ganta looked at the flying Senji with the same Cheshire grin on his face, though the angle that his head was tilted down at made his eyes impossible to see. Once Senji smacked into the side of the cage, Ganta's shoulders began to shudder slightly at the sight in front of him.

To Ganta, the entire situation was…it was….

"he…hehe…heheHEHAHAHAHAHA!

To **F**u**N**n**Y**!

"Ohhh! He flew far!" Ganta said in a happy tone of voice. Ganta then moved the hair out of his eyes so could get a better look at the downed Crow. Both of his grey eyes were dilated and unfocussed as they were focused on the stunned Senji. They were also alight with a euphoric happiness at the pain that he had caused to his opponent. Ganta's Cheshire grin then shrunk to a small smirk, but his shoulders still shuddered with restrained chuckles as he loosely held his black gunblade in his hands.

Senji finally got to his feet and winced at the feeling of his bruised ribs. Senji knew that this was a whole different kind of fight and he honestly didn't know if he could beat Ganta now. It seemed as if Ganta had a defense for every one of his abilities and just when he had the kid on the ropes he gains some kind of crazy upgrade.

It was totally unfair.

Ganta then started to sway in place, as though he was a drunken man trying to regain his footing. The black sword in his hand was constantly in motion as Ganta twirled it around into the air like a sword juggler. While Ganta was moving like a bar patron who had one to many, he began to talk in the same delirious tone that he had been using.

"Everything about this place is so funny. My friends were killed by that Red Man yet somehow I'm the one who got blamed and sent here…" Ganta paused in his speech as he devolved into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Hehehahahaha, This prison, the Red Man, even this fight…this whole place just makes me **L**a**U**g**H!**"

The last bit of Ganta's speech became dueled layered, as though Ragnarok was trying to speak at the same time as Ganta. The effect of it was terrifying but Senji had other things to worry about.

Ganta lifted his gunblade into the air so the tip of the blade pointed towards the Crow themed Deadman. The revolver part of the sword then began to spin faster and faster as streams of black blood flew from the barrels of the cylinder and gathered at the gunblade's tip. The blood then formed into the rough shape of a bullet.

"BANG!" Ganta yelled out as loud as he could. The bullet at the tip of the blade literally fired from the gunblade at speeds that were far greater than what Ganta did before.

Senji barely had time to roll to the side just as the bloody projectile ripped through the steel mesh that he was leaning against. Before Senji could even recover from his dodge Ganta was already on top of him with that damned black sword of his ready to tear into him.

Senji once again noticed that Ganta seemed to be defying all of his expectations. Normally, if an opponent of Ganta's size and weight had tried to go up against him in a pure slug fest, they would've found themselves cut to pieces at the beginning of the fight. Hell the kid didn't even come up to his shoulders, the height difference alone should've allowed Crow to win this fight without much of a problem.

This was not a normal situation though.

Ganta was literally a blur of metal and black blood as he tried to cleave Senji in two. Thankfully for Crow, being the more experienced fighter, he could see through Ganta's berserker like movements and was able to land more hits on the young man then he did on him. Not that it did any good though, since Ganta's defensive ability rendered any cuts that Crow did manage to land nothing more than shallow wounds.

Senji knew that he would have to get creative if he wanted to win this fight; and he just saw his chance. Ganta over extended himself as he tried to bring an overhead strike down on Senji's head and his entire left side was now open for an attack. Senji effortlessly dodged the sloppy overhead swing, causing Ganta stumble forward from the uninterrupted forward momentum.

Senji took advantage of Ganta's fumble and pumped one of his Crow claws with an extra bit of blood. The thin red blade swelled up a bit but still retained every bit of sharpness that it possessed before. Senji then swung his enhanced Crow Claw at Ganta, hoping that the next blow would put him down for good. Ganta saw the blade coming from the corner of his eye and, even in his crazed state, lifted his left arm in an attempt to block the attack.

Senji's battle crazed smile returned to his face as his beefed up Crow Claw cut deeply into Ganta's arm. The blade quickly sliced through the hardened blood within Ganta's veins and left a long gash down the length of his arm. Ganta leapt back from Senji and looked at his injured arm with almost childlike curiosity as his black blood oozed from his wounded arm. The crowd went wild as the one sided match finally started to get bloody and violent again.

Ganta cocked his head to the side before he turned his attention back to Senji as the Cheshire grin on his face returning to full force.

"That was awesome, let me try it now."

Ganta charged towards Senji with reckless abandon, not even bringing his sword up in preparation as he did so. Senji grinned at the kid's antics as he almost casually prepared his blades for the next attack.

'_I gotta admit the kid's got gut's…" _He then pumped a bit more of his blood into his claws and prepared to slice Ganta in half. _'Not too smart though.'_

Ganta then did something that shocked Senji and the assembled audience to no end. The blood from Ganta's wound bubbled and surged outwards. More and more black blood flooded from the wound and twisted into the disturbingly familiar shape of a crescent blade; Ganta just formed a black version of Senji's Crow Claw.

The slight widening of Senji's eyes and the tensing of his muscles were the only signs of the immense shock that he was feeling on the inside. At the sight of his copied Branch of Sin, for just a split moment, the image of Ganta had been superimposed by the image of an emerald haired youth who was just as crazy and could also copy the powers of Deadmen. Not even a split second later Senji raised his red Crow Claws in front of him as Ganta attempted to bisect him with his own power.

Red met black as Ganta's black Crow Claw clashed with the original version of in a rather impressive display of strength.

"Ragnarok…" Ganta muttered as Ragnarok's mouth appeared on the flat of the copied blade. "**SCREAM!**"

The mouth on the blade grinned for a bit before it released the loudest, ear shattering scream that anyone had ever heard.

"**AAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEE!"**

"ARRRGGGHHH!" Senji screamed as his hands instinctively went for his ears to block out the sound.

Despite his best attempts to block out the sound, Senji could still hear that damned shrieking wail. It was like white-hot daggers were being shoved through his ears and into his brain. As time slowly crawled by, Senji slowly noticed that everything was starting to spin around him.

_'What is this?!' _Senji thought as something warm and wet started to leak from his ears.

Without any warning the sound stopped just in time as a black blur passed through and out of his chest. The blur left behind a large slash that ran from his shoulder to his hip that started to bleed profusely. Senji stared at the wound for a moment, not able to quite comprehend what had just happened, before the metallic scent of his blood hit him full force. Senji turned his attention back to Ganta, who had finally seemed to snap out of his insanity but was now breathing laboriously.

"My name is not kid…" Ganta muttered as he tried to get his breathing back under control. "Nor is it Woodpecker or Prisoner #5580..."

Ganta then leveled the fiercest glare that he could muster at the wounded and barely standing Senji. The "Ganta Glare" normally wouldn't have even scared a kitten much less a bloodied veteran of Deadman Wonderland but there was a fire in his eyes that seemed to make his glare much imposing.

"MY NAME IS GANTA IGARASHI!"

The last of Senji's strength finally left him as he collapsed onto the ground with a small smile on his lips. "That was a bang…Ganta Igarashi."

Ganta's black gunblade suddenly dissolved into a stream of blood and flew back into Ganta's body through the various wounds that he had collected from the battle. Once the last of the blood had finished entering Ganta's body, he was assaulted my combination of pain and mental fatigue. The last thing that Ganta heard before he fell into blissfully unconsciousness was the approving roar of the crowd.

XXXXXXXXXXX

(?)

Within a ruined room deep within the prison, a lone figure watched Woodpecker's match against Crow with unparalleled attention. The figure was a decrepit old man with a seemingly endless amount of tubes leading into his body, keeping it functioning for just a bit longer. The old man watched Woodpecker's match with one pale eye while the other one lazily moved around in its socket. He watched as the blood creature burst from Ganta's back and he watched as Crow tried to fend off the crazed Woodpecker.

Once Woodpecker dealt the final blow to Crow the corners of the man's wrinkled mouth twitched for the barest of instants as he began to speak, gasping for breath as he did so.

"…interest…" The old man gasped in a raspy and tired voice. "Increased…46%."

XXXXXXXXXX

(-Deadman Wonderland: C-Block-)

Yō was not having a good day, not good at all.

After getting no useful information out of that albino air head, Yō had called it a night and sneaked back into his cell. The event's at the entrance of G-block made sleep practically impossible so he spent most of the night trying to figure out way to sneak back into the G-Block so he could get his CP cards back. Without those cards there's no way he could complete his goal, his only reason why he entered this hellhole in the first place.

Then his day got worse when he was forced to eat more of those damned Nutria-Blocks since he couldn't afford any other food. Now he was attempting to wash out that god awful taste by drowning himself in one of the many drinking fountains in the cafeteria.

"Hey Yō! How's my favorite inmate doing?"

Just perfect… this was exactly what he needed to deal with now.

Looking up from the drinking fountain Yō saw a scruffy looking inmate walking up to him with a big smile on his face. The man looked like more like a hobo then an inmate to be honest; with his scruffy winter coat, frayed skull cap, and missing front tooth the inmate looked decidingly out of place.

"What do you want Shoo?" Yō mumbled as he wiped some stray water away from his mouth.

"Aww don't be like that Yō." Shoo said as he scratched his chin with one of his fingers. "I got some real hot information right now. How about turning cola into wine or even melting the bars of your cell with chili sauce?"

Yō only rolled his eyes at Shoo's so called "information" then turned away from the inmate, leaving a few parting words for the man.

"Don't give me that crap Shoo. Half of your info is made up but that's all I can expect from a hacker."

Shoo gave a small chuckle of amusement before he continued talking. "Well I can't argue with that since it is the reason why I got sent to DW in the first place but you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the info that I do get. And to prove it I got some info on that girl that you wanted to know about…"

Yō froze in place as what Shoo just said. His pupils shrank and a light sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead as he ever so slowly turned around to look at the grinning Shoo.

"Where is she…?"

XXXXXXXXXXX

(A-Block: Back Alleys)

Shiro happily hummed to herself as she skipped through the dark alleyways of Deadman Wonderland. She skillfully avoided the patrols of guards and the active security camera's since she was practically an expert in the art of staying hidden. Those ten years of constant practice really did help her get good at hide and seek but without Ganta to play with, it was pretty boring.

The thought of her missing friend made the smile on Shiro's face slip off for a few moments before it returned with full force. Sure her friend was missing right now but she was sure that Ganta could hold out until she came to get him. With his never die attitude and his new power Shiro was sure that Ganta could survive until she found another way into the G-ward. After all Shiro was Aceman and no matter what she would see her best friend again no matter what.

The thought of how strong Ganta was now brought a smile to Shiro's lips. As much as she hated to admit it, Shiro knew that Ganta was a weakling at the best of times but now he seemed so strong. A light blush appeared on her face as she remembered how Ganta had beat up that mean robot and saved her from that spikey metal.

Perhaps now Ganta would make a good side kick for her when they played Aceman again! Shiro was so excited that she began to sing a cheer for Ganta, wherever he may be.

"_Ga-Ga-Ganta fight! You can do it Ganta! Sh-Shi-Shiro will cheer you on! G-G-Ganta fig-_Hummggh"

Before Shiro could start singing her next verse, a pale hand shot out from the darkness and covered her mouth as it pulled her into an alleyway. Shiro struggled against her hidden assailant for a few moments, managing to jab whoever it was in the stomach and broke free as the mysterious person bent over in pain.

"S-Shiro! What are you doing?!" A familiar voice managed to wheeze out obvious pain.

Spinning around on the balls of her feet, Shiro found herself looking at Ganta's newest friend as he nursed his stomach. She struggled to remember his name for a couple of seconds before it came to her: his name was Yō!

"I was cheering for Ganta..." Shiro answered shyly to Ganta's new friend.

Yō's face became bewildered for a moment before his outrage returned in full force. Now was not the time to be singing or cheering: they were in a prison for Kami's sake! What could be wrong with this girl for her to miss that simple fact?! Was she _that_ naive?

"Shiro if the guard hear you then we'll never be able to get back into G-Block." Yō managed to say, forcing himself not to yell or snap at the albino girl.

Shiro pouted at his words but she understood them nonetheless. If she made too much noise then she wouldn't be able to get to G-Block. And if she didn't get into G-Block, then Shiro wouldn't be able to find and play with Ganta again.

"Okay." Shiro said with a small sigh, "Shiro will quit singing. But," She looked up at Yō and adopted the sternest expression that she could, "Shiro will only stop singing if Ganta's friend helps Shiro find Ganta again. Okay?"

Yō nodded at Shiro's request, "Alright."

With that, Yō beckoned for Shiro to follow him before they began to walk off towards the area where they had been kicked out of in A-Block. He knew that the entrance to G-Block was there and, while he couldn't get in himself, Shiro had a knack of getting in anywhere she wanted to. While he had different reasons for wanting to get into G-Block, he wasn't really using her, per say, as he was helping her and she was helping him.

Still, what did he care if he was using her or not? All that he cared about was finding and rescuing _her_...

_'Don't worry, Minatsuki-chan. I'm coming to get you out of there.'_

XXXXXXXXXX

(Deadman Wonderland: G-Block)

Within the large underground facility that made up the bulk of G-Block, Ganta Igarashi was sleeping in his new cell after being brought there when he fell unconscious after his victory against Crow. Of course that sleep wouldn't last very long thanks to a certain black-demon.

"**Ganta…" **A high-pitched, but strangely familiar voice whispered into the sleeping Ganta's ear.

Ganta attempted to ignore the voice and continue sleeping. Unfortunately it appeared that the voice would not let up.

**"Ganta… wake up Ganta…**" The voice said as a finger started to poke Ganta in the head.

Knowing that the voice wouldn't stop unless he woke up, Ganta slowly opened his eyes. When they were full he came face to face with the grinning face of Ragnarok.

"**Hi"**

"AHHHHHHH!"

"**Good morning you wuss..."** Ragnarok greeted the boy as he continued screaming.

After calming down from the unexpected "closeness" between him and Ragnarok, Ganta looked around and noticed that he was in yet another unfamiliar place. He didn't have time to really take in any of the details of the room or wonder where he was, as a weight had just chosen to sit itself on top of his head.

**"It's about time you woke up you lazy ass."**

Looking upwards, Ganta found himself once again staring into the X-marked eyes of Ragnarok. Though now that Ganta got a good look at the pesky black-devil, he noticed that Ragnarok had changed since the first time he saw him in the fight with Senji.

Ragnarok now resembled a chibi.

Before Ragnarok was a large muscle-bound figure that was even bigger than Ganta was. Now though, Ragnarok was as small as a plush toy and looked about as threatening as one. If a girl was there, they might've even said that Ragnarok, in his current state, looked kind of cute.

"Ragnarok?" Ganta asked with no small amount of confusion in his voice.

Apparently that was the wrong thing to ask since Ragnarok began to wail on Ganta's head with his tiny fists. **"What?! How could forget about me so fast you idiot? After all those times I pulled your ungrateful ass out of the fire time after time... and this is the thanks I get!?**"

"Ow! Please, stop Ragnarok you're hurting me! Ow! Ow! Stop it!" Ganta cried.

Ragnarok stopped hitting Ganta, but the large toothy grin that suddenly formed on the chibi-Ragnarok's face did not lesson Ganta's fear one bit. **"If you think that hurt, wait till your mind catches up with the rest of your body."**

Ganta was about to ask what Ragnarok meant when all of a sudden he realized how much pain he was in. His entire body was sore as hell; it almost felt as if he fought against a meat grinder and lost horribly.

"Why am I so sore? And for that matter where am I?" Ganta groaned, trying to remember where he had been before he had blacked out and why his body was feeling the way it was. "Wasn't I just in a fight with that Senji guy?"

"**Well to answer your questions, you barely won the match even with my help then they brought us to this room along with all that junk over there."**

The memories of the fight flashed by Ganta's eyes in an instant, causing his mind to fully snap awake. He could clearly remember most of the fight but the parts after Ragnarok had morphed into a gunblade, when he went temporarily insane, were suspiciously muddled.

Ganta then absently turned to where Ragnarok was pointing to and saw a large pile of assorted gifts lying next to his bed. Ganta then noticed the familiar stripped wrapper of an antidote candy on top of a trophy. He then realized that it had been a bit of time since he had last eaten a candy so he picked up the piece and popped it in his mouth.

"BLEAH!"

"**BLEAH!"**

Once the horrible taste of the bitter candy passed Ganta decided that it was time to get the answers that he needed.

"Ragnarok, what the hell did you do to me during the fight? After you made that sword…"

The thought of his berserk state, the freedom that he felt by giving himself completely to the madness…

He almost drowned in it.

Fear and desperation returned to Ganta's eyes as he desperately tried to banish away the unwanted thought. Ganta never wanted to experience that loss of control again for if he did, Ganta wasn't sure if he could come back.

"What did you do to me…?"

Ragnarok, in the face of the somber and tense atmosphere that Ganta had effectively put up, seemed to not to have a care in the world as he picked his non-existent ear.

"**Well after you were getting your ass handed to you by that Prude-Crow, I graciously decided to lend you my help. Of course you would've still lost since you're too pathetic to do so otherwise, so I just gave you a little push in the right direction."**

The grin that Ragnarok had on his face as he said this made Ganta's spine shiver.

"**Unfortunately, since you're still so weak you tore up pretty much your entire body while in that state since you couldn't handle the stress that you put it through. By the end of the match you were pretty much made up of dislocated joints, torn muscles, ruptured blood vessels, and a whole lot of other things that I had to fix up while you were being lazy and taking a nap."**

Ganta looked down at his body for a bit, as if surprised how damaged it once was while now it only felt sore. Granted it still felt like his limbs were set on fire every time he moved them but compared to the alternate, Ganta knew that he was lucky.

**!BONK!**

"Oww!" Ganta yelled as Ragnarok bopped him on the head again with his shrunken fist.

"What was that for?!"

**"For ignoring me while I was in the middle of talking. Now where was I…? Oh yes, to wrap up what I'm trying to say, you suck."**

The complete and brutal honesty in Ragnarok's voice made Ganta want to curl up in a corner and die.

"**That said, until you man up and actually learn how to handle all of your emotional crap and get stronger I'm cutting you off from the good stuff for now.**

Before Ganta could ask Ragnarok could ask what exactly the "good stuff" was when the door to his new room swished opened as a loud, flamboyant voice echoed through the doorway.

"Oh my, it seems as if the sleeping prince has awakened at last."

Through the door of his room, a tall blond "man?" strutted through the door clad in an odd assortment of vests, fur coats and…was he wearing woman's panties?

Behind the man stood an odd group of people, there was an old man with dreadlocks who had a pair of headphones covering his ears with the strap over his eyes, a young woman in a yellow sundress with long black hair that tied off into two braided pigtails, and a short obese man with stiches on the sides of his mouth who was also chewing on a piece of metal piping.

"Who are you people and why are you here!" Ganta yelped at the sight of the four individuals who just barged into his room. They were all weird looking and he didn't know how to deal with such weird people right now.

"Why we're your new neighbors! We all saw your match against Senji and I must say that you preformed quite magnificently my dear boy."

The man then noticed the smaller form of Ragnarok resting on top of Ganta's head while his lower body was connected to the boys back.

"Ah and this must be that special Branch of Sin that you used against poor Senji."

Ragnarok did not take kindly to the fact that the flamboyant man talked about him like he wasn't even there and let his ire known.

"**Shut the hell up you Okama-Peacock!"**

The four strangers seemed shocked at the fact that the little black creature responded to them. Sure they all saw the fight but they all thought that the creature was some sort of Branch of Sin that Ganta only pretended was sentient to trip up Senji in their battle.

Apparently not.

"Wow, what a rude little thing you are."

"I have never seen anything like that before…is what my daughter says."

"ah-ah s-sorry for s-starring."

"Can I eat it?"

Ganta wasn't use to all the attention that he was getting from these strange people, who were all probably violent criminals, and was starting to get uncomfortable.

"Who are you people and what to you do you want?"

The man in the flamboyant outfit seemed to snap out of the state that Ragnarok put them in.

"OH so sorry my boy! As I said before we are your new neighbors. I am Chaplin Sukegawa, the beautiful light that pierces the ugly darkness of DW."

"This ugly little thing is Masu." The "man", Chaplin, said as he pointed to the short obese man who just finished eating the metal piping in his hands. "Be careful, he'll eat just about anything so stay away from him.

Chaplin then pointed to the girl in the yellow sundress, "This adorable little wallflower here is Minatsuki-chan."

"Eh, ah…I-it's good t-to meet y-you…" The girl shyly said as fidgeted in place under Ganta's gaze.

"Finally there's our oldest resident," Chaplin said as she pointed out the tall old man. "We don't exactly know his real name but everyone just calls him Hitara."

Ganta stared at the odd group of inmates as a cold sweat started to form on the back of his neck. Oddly enough, besides the obvious fear of the fact that all four of these strangers were probably Deadman and actual criminals, a small part of his mind was more freaked out because four random people just barged into his personal space.

"Now that the introductions have been taken care of…" Chaplin said as she struck a pose. "It's time for your first victory celebration! I hope that you haven't used your prize money yet sweetie because you're the host of the party!"

Ganta then eloquently spoke the first thing that came to his mind.

"Huh?!"

XXXXXXXXXX

(?)

Hidden deep within the bowels of Deadman Wonderland there was a room. This room was once a lab that belonged to an insane scientist who performed all sorts of inhumane tests on dozens of so called "test subjects". Miraculously, the room had not only survived the great quake ten years ago but it also had not been discovered when DW was built upon the old remains of the health center.

That did not mean that the room had escaped the effects of time though. The room was bathed in complete darkness, since power had long since run out, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

Amazingly though, on top of a lab bench, a single large stopped beaker was free of all forms of webbing. In fact, the cobwebs formed a neat little circle, completely avoiding going near the glass container; it was as if the spiders feared to go near the beaker.

Inside the beaker was a large amount of black liquid that was as black as the darkness that surrounded it. For over a decade the liquid had been contained within the beaker, never once had been a change in its contents.

**!Blup…!**

Until now…

A single bubble floated to the top of the liquid before the beaker started to vibrate slightly. After a minute, the vibrating stopped and a soft voice was heard from within the beaker.

"**father…will you fall to the madness…?"**

Then all was silent within the lab once again.


End file.
